PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan said on Friday that the federal government was wasting a good opportunity to merge Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
He demanded that the merger should take place immediately to begin institutional reforms in the tribal areas.
Addressing a press conference at the K-P Chief Minister’s House, Imran said the people of Fata were suffering because of several problems including military operations against insurgents and drone attacks which had left hundreds displaced.
He added that the infrastructure in the tribal areas had suffered damaged and many people had lost their businesses but the federal government was delaying the merger.
The PTI chief alleged that the Fata secretariat had become a bastion of corruption and financial misappropriation and uplift funds had not been spent on the people.
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“Millions of rupees are taken for the appointment of political agents in Fata,” Imran said, adding that the region needed to have its own government representatives in the K-P Assembly so that the problems of the area could be raised and resolved.
The K-P government, he maintained, was administratively and economically prepared for the merger but the Pakistan Muslim Legaue-Nawaz’s (PML-N) federal government was reluctant to go ahead with it before the general elections next year.
“The PML-N government has stopped their entire merger plan on the behest of Mualana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achackazi who are least interested in the region,” he said.
“Achakzai is more concerned about the interests of Afghanistan.”
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Imran said his party wanted the local government set-up in K-P extended to Fata so that powers could be devolved to the grass-roots level but a few elements including the Fata secretariat and political agents did not want to end their status quo there.
Speaking about the importance of the merger, he said the language and culture of the residents of the tribal areas were similar to those of the people in K-P and there would not be any issue in the reforms.
“Administrative systems are different but will be streamlined with the passage of time.”
Criticising the recently passed electoral reforms law, he said it was unprecedented in the world’s history that a government had passed a bill that allowed a disqualified person to head a political party.
The post Govt wasting opportunity to merge FATA with K-P: Imran Khan appeared first on The Express Tribune.
Source: Tribune News | Govt wasting opportunity to merge FATA with K-P: Imran Khan
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