LANDIKOTAL: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has said that report regarding reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has been prepared and final decision will be taken by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in light of the opinion of the majority of tribesmen.
Addressing a jirga of tribal elders here in Khyber Agency, he said that the report would be presented to the prime minister and he himself would announce FATA reforms soon after that. The governor also said that the government would not impose any decision on the tribesmen.
Instead the reforms would be introduced in the light of consultations with them, which will also bear positive and pleasant impacts on their lives. He said that the tribesmen have passed through difficult and hard period. First the prime minister adopted the path of negotiations in FATA.
On failure, he (the prime minister) took the timely decision of the Zarb-e-Azb security operation and protected the whole country including the tribal areas and now tribesmen were living peaceful life. He said that Pakistan was constructing Torkham border gate which would allow the checking of the entry and exit of people in better manner and their travel documents could also be scrutinized.
However, the purpose of the Torkham gate was not meant to stop Afghans from moving across the border, he said. Governor Jhagra said that Pakistan and Afghanistan governments were negotiating to repatriate Afghan refugees in an honourable manner where the government of Afghanistan could provide them all possible facilities.
By the end of the current year, all internally displaced persons of the tribal areas would be repatriated to their houses in an honourable manner and rehabilitation work was also in full-swing wherever destruction had occurred, he said, and announced financial support for Major Jawad Ali Chengzi, who lost his life during Torkham tension.
The governor also distributed financial relief for the heirs of 72 other persons that were killed and injured in Torkham and other areas of the Khyber Agency.
