KHAR: Tribal elders of the Fata Grand Jirga on Monday announced that they would observe May 31 as a black bay to register resentment over the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speaking at a press conference at the Bajaur Press Club, tribal elders, including Malik Bahadur Shah, Malik Mohammadi Shah, Malik Hifzur Rahman and others said that May 31, 2018, was the darkest day in the history of Fata when the then president signed the 25th Constitutional Amendment, merging these areas into the province without seeking the opinion of the 15 million tribal people.
They said that every year on this day, tribespeople across all seven former tribal agencies and six Frontier Regions (FRs), under the banner of the Fata Grand Jirga, organized protest rallies, marches, and gatherings carrying black flags to reject what they termed the “forced merger” and to demand restoration of Fata’s pre-9/11 constitutional status.
However, the speakers said that since Eidul Azha this year was expected to fall around the same dates on which the merger was approved, it would not be appropriate to hold protests with black flags during that period.
Therefore, after mutual consultation, it was decided that this year May 31 would not be observed with black-flag demonstrations as in previous years.Instead, the elders said that simple protest press conferences would be held across the former Fata region.
The also said that after the merger, security problems in their areas had increased, while theft, administrative difficulties and hardships in various sectors of life had multiplied for the people.
