DERA GHAZI KHAN: Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani has condemned the alleged plan to merge Border Military Police (BMP) into Punjab Police and abolish the status of tribal area for Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.

He termed the proposal against the promises made by the founder of Pakistan as well as a violation of a written agreement between the government and elders of nine main tribes of the area that ensured special status till the area was developed on the level of settled areas.

While talking to Dawn on thephone, the deputy speaker said that instead of fulfilling promises made to bring about development for the tribal people, the government planned to snatch their special status, which had led to help for the lessdeveloped area.

He claimed that crime rate in the tribal area was zero, while its inhabitants and the border police were part of the defences to guard the provincial boundaries. The proposed merger of BMP into Punjab Police and abolishing the status of tribal area would make the provincial boundaries of Punjab adjacent to Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vulnerable.

Gorchani claimed that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had said that no change would be brought about in the special status without consultation with the people of the tribal area.

On the other hand, tribal chiefs of Mazari and Buzdar tribes -Mir Balkh Sher Mazari (the only signatory alive of the accord of annexation of thetribal area with Punjab instead of Balochistan in 1950) and Fateh Muhammad Khan Buzdar, respectively -also condemned the proposed plan to abolish special status of the Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Talking to Dawn, Mir Mazari said that it had been decided in 1950 that the area would be annexed with Punjab instead of Balochistan on assurance of provision of all basic facilities to the people of the lessdeveloped area to bring them on a par with people of settled areas. After the goal of development was achieved, the area would be declared a settled area, which could not be done in 70 years.

In the 1950, tribal elders here had also demanded an independent provincial seat of tribal area. Currently, due to an increase in population of the tribal area, one National Assembly and two provincial assembly seats could be established to ensure representation of the area for development.