ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will always stand with tribesmen demanding basic rights akin to those being enjoyed by the people in the rest of the country, said Senator Farhatullah Babar Monday during a sit-in organised by parliamentarians from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) outside the Parliament House.
Talking to the media, the senator said that the PPP would always support tribal people in their just demands for the merger of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and FATA and abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR).
Babar also nailed the critics of KP-FATA merger, saying a religio-political party, which was advocating for the Muslims unity, was opposing the merger.
“A nationalist political party, which had been advocating for unity among Pakhtuns of Balochistan, KP, FATA and Afghanistan, was opposing the unity of the Pakhtuns tribesmen and KP Pakhtuns,” he said.
Reforms in FATA were opposed by vested interests in the past also when it was decided to allow general voting and extend political parties order on the ground that the people were not yet ready for change, he said.
“Critics were proved wrong then… they will be proved wrong again.”
Keeping in view the administrative, social, cultural, linguistic, political and geographical conditions merger in the province was most logical, he said, adding that the KP-FATA merger would fundamentally alter political discourse in tribal areas and that was why the vested interest opposed it.
He also opposed creation of the post of the chief operating officer as overall in-charge of administration and development of the FATA and called for strengthening the FATA Secretariat instead.
He said that cabinet had decided to extend the jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to tribal areas but all of a sudden it was reversed and it was decided to extend the jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court to tribal areas.
He demanded immediate demolition of the existing system of levy and collection of taxes, cess, levies and rahdari by political agents, which he said was “arbitrary, illegal and a tool for corruption”.
“This illegal practice has become a lucrative business for some as reportedly checkposts are auctioned to the highest bidder.”
He said that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Reforms Committee had also recognised that the permit and rahdari system bred corruption and enhanced commodity prices and asked for its abolition.
Published in Daily Times, October 10th 2017.
