Conditionally welcoming the Fata reforms announced by the federal government, the Khyber Union, a Khyber Agency-based social and political organisation, has demanded that tribal agencies and Frontier Regions (FRs) should be made a separate province and all anti-human rights clauses in the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) be nullified.
Addressing an Iftar party at a hotel on Wednesday, Haris Khan, the Khyber Union president, said in order to bring tribal areas into mainstream of the society, basic amendments were needed in the century-old draconian law of FCR as it had deprived people of their fundamental rights.
“The extension of Political Parties Act to Fata was not the demand of tribal people, rather it is the desire of the political parties to merely increase their vote bank,” Haris Khan argued.
Referring to the unlimited powers enjoyed by political agents, he cautioned that no amendments would work until the executive was separated from the judiciary. He said the recently introduced amendments to the FCR were not supposed to change tribal life in a major way. However, he added that these small changes could prove a step forward for bringing major reforms in Fata.
The gathering was also addressed by the Khyber Union General Secretary Saleem Khan, Press Secretary Haji Bismillah Khan and former agency councillor Suhbat Khan Afridi.
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