Status of separate province demanded for Fata

Speakers at a forum on Tuesday called for making drastic reforms in the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) instead of taking cosmetic steps.

The forum was attended by tribal elders and members of the legal fraternity. The event was organised by the Pak-US Alumni Network, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the Lincolns Corner, University of Peshawar.

The speakers said the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and high court should be extended to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the tribal areas be regulated under the 1973 Constitution rather than under the FCR.

Malik Khan Marjan, hailing from North Waziristan, said that Fata should be given the status of a separate province as a resolution on the issue was pending in the National Assembly.

Criticising the Fata MNAs, he added the lawmakers from the tribal areas didn’t have any plan for the uplift of their areas and most of them took dictation from the political agents before speaking on an issue in the parliament.

President of the Fata Lawyers’ Forum Ijaz Mohmand said the Fata Tribunal should be headed by a serving or retired judge of the high court or Supreme Court instead of a bureaucrat.

Prof Qibla Ayaz from the University of Peshawar, who was the chief guest, welcomed the reforms made in the FCR. He said literacy rate was very low among the people of Fata and called for the establishment of more schools to improve the socioeconomic condition of the tribal people.