PESHAWAR: Scores of people from tribal areas and political activists from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday left for Islamabad via motorway to stage a sit-in at D Chowk against the delay in Fata reforms.

Led by Fata parliamentarians Shah Jee Gul Afridi, Shahabuddin Khan, Sajid Hussain Turi and Bismillah Khan, they assembled at the interchange on motorway before leaving for the federal capital. ANP women activists were part of the caravan.

Speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaisar and leaders of various political parties along with their workers also joined the rally at the interchange.

A rally of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers from Swabi district also joined the caravan.

Reports suggest that a large number of people proceeded to Islamabad from southern belt of KP and its tribal areas.

The people supporting reforms have announced that they will continue their protest in Islamabad until the government accepts their demand of merging Fata with KP before the next general elections.

The marchers shouted slogans against the federal government and its coalition partners for delaying the Fata-KP merger. They also demanded the abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

MNA Shah Jee Gul Afridi said the KP-Fata merger was inevitable and therefore, the federal government should not further delay action on the recommendations of the six-member reforms committee.

He demanded representation of the tribal people in the KP Assembly through the 2018 elections and extension of superior courts to Fata. The lawmaker said tribesmen would intensify their protest if the government further delayed action on the merger plan. He said the people of Fata had been deprived of their fundamental rights.

Our Correspondent from Khar adds: Thousands of political workers left Bajaur Agency for Islamabad on Monday to participate in the Islamabad sit-in.

A convoy of more than 1,000 vehicles carrying activists of major political parties and students left Turgondi, the exit point of the agency, for Islamabad at 9am.

Holding black flags and banners inscribed with slogans ‘go FCR go’ and ‘give tribesmen constitutional rights’, the participants said they were hopeful that their protest would force the government to merge Fata with KP and extend constitutional rights to the tribesmen.

Leading the convey, Nawab Zada Jalaluddin Khan of PTI, Nizamuddin Khan of PML-N Gul Afzal Khan of ANP and Maulana Waheed Gul of JI said the sit-in would help end the colonial governance system in tribal areas through the extension of constitutional rights and merger of Fata with KP before the next general elections.

They expressed the hope that the sit-in would make the federal government execute the Fata-KP merge plan and extend fundamental rights to the people of tribal areas.

The speakers claimed that most of sit-in participants would be from Bajaur Agency, while a large number of people and students from the agency living in Peshawar, Mardan, Rawalpindi and Islamabad would join them.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017