FATA Merger Tribal elders in Pakistan say FATA merger performed without consent of tribal people
Member National Assembly (MNA) Mufti Abdul Shakoor and former federal minister Hameedullah Jan have claimed the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) merger was executed without the consent of tribal people, media reports said.
Abdul Shakoor was quoted as saying by The News International that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) had been against FATA-KP 9Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) merger from the very beginning.
“We will continue to oppose whether it’s in the form of meetings or jirgas,” he added.
He also said that the tribal system was a system of jirgas in which everyone gets justice and rights, but added that other areas did not have this system.
“We can’t tolerate this merger because it is a system of oppression that has been imposed on us by force but we will not allow it to be imposed on our tribal brethren in any form. We will take all legal means against it,” he added.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was a semi-autonomous tribal region in northwestern Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with neighbouring province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in 2018. It consisted of seven tribal agencies (districts) and six frontier regions, and were directly governed by Pakistan's federal government through a special set of laws called the Frontier Crimes Regulations.
