KHAR: JUI-F leaders on Monday called for holding a referendum on the issue of bringing reforms in the tribal areas, saying that the party was not against the reforms but wanted opinion of the tribesmen on the matter.

They made the call while addressing a public gathering in Khar here.

JUI-F Fata chief Mufti Abdul Shakoor, provincial deputy general secretary Maulana Rahat Hussain, Bajaur emir Maulana Abdur Rasheed, and former MNA Maulana Mohammad Sadiq spoke on the occasion.

Explaining the party stance on the proposed reforms in the tribal areas, the JUI-F leaders claimed that their party was not against the reforms but against the procedure adopted by the Fata Reforms Committee.

They said the JUI-F was not only in favour of replacing the colonial governance system in the tribal areas with the country`s regular laws, but had also struggled for the purpose as such changes was necessary to ensure basic and fundamental rights to the tribal people.

They termed the Fata Reforms Committee`s report incomplete and said the body members had failed to collect opinion of people from all walks of life over the reforms process.

The committee only met a handful of likeminded elements who are not authorised to make a decision on the feature of over 10 million people of the tribal region, said Abdul Shakoor.

The JUI leaders said the party believed that a referendum was the best way to make the reforms process acceptable to every tribesman.

The speakers urged the federal government to hold a referendum on the issue of reforms in Fata and merger of region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They came down hard on the PTI for its planned `lockdown` of Islamabad and said the move was nothing but to reverse the development process.

They said PTI leaders would not succeed in their mission.

They said JUI-F was a democratic party and would support the federal government in turning the country a developed and Islamic welfare state.