Leaders of Muttahida Qabail Party on Sunday demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and interim government to hold elections on provincial assembly seats in the tribal areas along with the general elections in other parts of the country.
Addressing a news conference here, the tribal elders said the elections should be held on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats from the tribal areas under the supervision of interim government. They said that they have also brought the matter into notice of the Chief Election Commissioner and have been protesting in Islamabad for the last many days, but nobody was willing to hear to them.
Habib Noor, one of the tribal elders addressing the press conference, said that they have been protesting peacefully for their constitutional right but nobody from the government has contacted them so far. They said that if the election commission failed to meet their demand, they would hold a sit-in outside the Prime Minister House.
Abdullah Gul, Chairman Tehreek Jawanan, said that people of the tribal areas have rendered invaluable sacrifices for peace in Pakistan; therefore the government should address their genuine demands. Earlier on Friday, the tribal elders and dozens of people from the tribal areas marched from D-Chowk to NADRA Chowk in the federal capital, demanding elections from the tribal areas be held as part of the General Election 2018. As the tribal areas have been merged with KP, the region would no more fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The merger promises reforms in the tribal areas, which have been on the back burner since quite a long time.