Peshawar: 16 Feb: Speakers at an open forum comprising of tribal elders and legal fraternity declared amendments in frontier Crimes Regulations as academic rather than practical which would lead to making the law more deadly for the people of FATA. They said that, jurisdiction of the High Courts and Supreme Court must be extended to the federally administered tribal areas instead, and FATA be treated under the 1973 constitution of Pakistan, rather than being treated under a regulation. They said that as long as corruption prevails in the country no reforms can be implemented in settled areas of Pakistan so what to talk of FATA areas where writ of the government is under challenge all the time.
People of the North Waziristan were on the fore front to take liberation from British rule, but after independence we have been deprived of the basic needs and fundamental human rights said, Malik Khan Mirjan a tribal elder from NWA. He said that the voice of 10 million people must be taken into consideration and FATA be made as a separate province (Qabailistan) for which a resolution is pending in the national assembly since last year already. Criticizing the role of FATA MNA`s he added that they don’t have an agenda or plan for FATA and most of them take dictation from political agents before they speak about an issue about their region in the National Assembly.
He said that after the Salala check post incident which led to martyrdom of several army personnel the drone strikes were halted by US for a month or so but now it has started again. He demanded from the government, civil society and media to raise joint voice against it.
The forum was held by Pak- US Alumni Network Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and TRDO in the Lincolns Corner, University of Peshawar.
President FATA lawyer’s forum Ijaz Momad said that implementation of the political parties act is not practically implacable there due to various reasons based on the mind set of people of that area. He added that FATA tribunal must be headed by a serving of retired high court or Supreme Court judge rather than a bureaucrat and showed his distrust over the present FATA tribunal set up under the executives.
Amendments in the law drafted more than one hundred years ago is certainly a good step said, Chief Guest of the day Prof. Dr. Qibla Ayaz. He added that literacy rate among people of FATA is very low which very discouraging. He urged the need for establishment of more educational institutions in FATA areas for their economic and social revival.
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