PESHAWAR: A jirga sponsored by Awami National Party has demanded integration of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and abolition of Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation 2011.

The jirga also called for abolition of Article 247 from the Constitution and demanded equal rights for people of Fata like other citizens of the country.The jirga, convened here at Nishtar Hall on Sunday, was attended by tribal elders and ANP workers from seven agencies and six frontier regions of Fata.

Addressing the jirga, ANP provincial president Senator Afrasiab Khattak said that his party would continue struggle to restore fundamental rights of the tribal people. He said that without merger of Fata, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would remain incomplete.

He said that ANP claimed ownership of the motherland and its people that was why the party workers were being targeted. He declared 2012 “the year of Fata” and said that the party would hold conferences and public meetings to highlight problems of the tribal people.

“Pakhtuns living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata can't remain divided and ANP will fight for their rights,” he remarked, adding that tribal area was not treated as part of Pakistan.

About ongoing insurgency in Fata, Mr Khattak said that tribal people had nothing to do with militancy and they did not invite foreigners to the area. “These guests are responsible for bloodshed,” he observed. He said that tribal borderlands were still used as a bridge and situation could not be improved unless Islamabad gave up Gen Zia's era Afghan policy.

Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that political activities would gain momentum in Fata after extension of Political Parties Act, 2002. He said that ANP would start political activities to bring people of Fata into mainstream. He said that it was very crucial time for the tribal people. He urged them to discourage those elements, who were against the integration of Fata with the province.

Senior lawyer Abdul Lateef Afridi blamed pro-establishment supporters for opposing merger of Fata with the province. He criticised Fata parliamentarians for demanding separate province for the tribal people and urged ANP leadership to take up the issue with the federal government.

Mr Afridi accused security forces of killing innocent people in operations in Khyber, Orakzai and Kurram agencies. He alleged that security forces and militants had demolished over 400 houses of tribesmen in central Kurram. He said that over 500 elders and notables had been eliminated in target killings and bomb blasts, but law enforcement agencies failed to arrest a single culprit.

Mr Afridi said that FCR was not acceptable in any form to the people of Fata and government instead of making amendments in the black law should restore fundamental rights of the people. He also rejected promulgation of the new regulations in Fata, saying that the new law was worst than FCR as it assigned unlimited powers to the law enforcement agencies in the conflict-hit areas.

Prominent Pashto writer from South Waziristan Agency, Nisar Wazir, said that tribal people were ridiculed by making so-called reforms in FCR and they had not been granted due rights.

“Pakistan has given us nothing during the last 64 years except national identity cards. This is a dilemma that nobody is paying attention to our problems,” he said.

Mr Wazir added that tribal people wanted to become part of Pakistan, but establishment did not listen to them. He said that people of Fata could no more tolerate FCR. He said that without resolving Afghan issue situation could not be improved in Fata.