PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami workers from Fata on Thursday staged a demonstration against the delay in the implementation of Fata reforms, especially the merger of their region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Led by JI Fata leaders Dr Samiullah Jan, Dr Munsif Khan, Maulana Zahidullah Turabi, Shah Faisal Afridi and Shah Jehan Afridi, the protesters held the party`s fiags and banners and shouted the `go FCR go` slogan.

They had come to the city from Khyber Agency and other areas of Fata.

The JIleaders said thefederalgovernment was deliberately delaying reforms in Fata.

They called for the immediate implementation of the recommendation of Fata Reforms Committee and merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A six-member committee headed by former adviser to the former prime minister on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz had compiled a report on Fata reformsin 2016.

Major recommendation of the report, which was presented to the federal cabinet, was the Fata`s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which stirred a controversy.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, allies of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government in the centre, had opposed the proposed Fata-KP merger and demanded the `mainstreaming` of Fata and thus, creating more confusion about the future of the tribal region.

Addressing protesters, JI Fata chief Dr Samiullah said tribal people had long been protesting for their rights but the successive governments didn`t take the protest seriously.

`We will stage a sit-in in Islamabad on Sept 25,` he warned, asking for the provision ofegualrights to tribalpeople.

He said the Fata people`s protest was meant for securing their fundamental rights only and that it had no other agenda.

The JI leader alleged that the implementation of Fata reforms were being hindered and complicated deliberately by certain quarters.

He said the abolishment of theFrontier Crimes Regulation through promulgating a presidential ordinance but due to certain people, the process was being hampered.

Dr Sami said the JI demanded the immediate merger of tribal areas with KP, extension of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and parliament to Fata and provision of basic rights to the tribal people.

Coming down heavily on the political parties for opposing the Fata-KP merger, he said the parties didn`t protest for the rights of militancy-hit tribal people.

Other speakers said if the Frontier Crimes Regulation was such a good law, then the federal government should extend it to Islamabad.

They demanded the representation to the people of Fata in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly through the 2018 elections.

The speakers said despite discriminatory policies, tribal people had never showed disloyalty to Pakistan and even announced allegiance to the new state in 1947 without referendum.

They said Fata people had laid down lives in 1948, 1965 and 1971 wars and protected the country`s western borders without asking for financial benefits.