Provincial leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) hailing from Khyber Agency and Honorary Consul General of Japan in Peshawar, Nawabzada Fazal Karim Afridi said that tribesmen will strongly resist against the merging of Federal Administration Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, called upon that government should refrain from taking such unviable steps to deprive tribal people of their legitimate rights.
He stressed that the FATA should be accepted as separate entity rather than unified with settled areas. He was talking to a group of journalists here at Honorary Consulate of Japan on Wednesday; further he said that the idea of unification of FATA with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is totally unreasonable and against the aspirations of the tribal society.
"Tribal people would take to streets to resist unification idea of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government with settled areas, Fazal Karim informed, adding that they will hold a long march to Federal Capital to press the government to make FATA as "Qabailistan". He said that it was essence of democracy to respect views and aspirations of everyone.
He further maintained that tribal people would have no desire to demise their traditional, cultural values nurturing under the tribal society by the merging of FATA with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. "Tribal people want a separate status to their area and they will never compromise on creation of "Qabailistan", he determined. Afridi viewed that tribal people have rendered enormous sacrifices for protection of borders of the state, and extended their support in every difficult situation confronted by the country. He said that the economic and educational activities have been adversely affected, whereas thousands have been deprived of education and health facilities due to prevailing military action in tribal region. He demanded of the government to immediately stop ongoing so-called security forces' operations in different tribal agencies.
Regarding the extension of Political Parties Act to FATA, and amendments in Frontier Crime Regulation Act, he said that the steps were not sufficient to mitigate the suffering of tribal people, demanded that the FATA should be given a separate status as "Qabailistan" to address all kind of issues.