IDPs Demanded For Implementation On Projects Announced For FATA

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Sep, 2016 ) : Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Khyber Agency have demanded of the government for the implementation of projects already announced for FATA areas.

Talking to a news channel, they said that life in their native villages is hard as all their properties have been destroyed added that thousands of people displaced from Bara Tehsil of Khyber Agency have returned in their native villages and the process is still going on.

They said that the government should fulfil its promises made with the IDPs before their repatriation. Abdul Miran Afridi, an elder of the area, said that schools, dispensaries, houses etc. have been demolished during the four years when they were living in camps thus demanded of the government to invest in infrastructure over there.

The FATA Reforms Committee recently submitted its report to Prime Minister about future status of FATA and one of its recommendations was that FATA be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There was widespread appreciation of this recommendation.

However, some tribal elders are against FATA's merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Malik Salauddin Afridi, an elder of Khyber Agency said that before merger of FATA with KP, the government should repatriate the IDPs to their native areas.

Then the leaders of these people will sit together to sort out some solution, he added. Another elder, Wazir Ahmad Kokikhel said that tribal people be given Gilgit-Baltistan like status added that tribal people should be given the right to elect their own representatives who will ultimately legislate for the area. APP/rb/mtd/bmq