PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has said major reservations of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on reforms in Fata have been addressed and that the tribal region will become part of the province very soon.

`Maulana Fazlur Rehman has agreed on reforms in Fata af ter the resolution of his reservations,` he told reporters af ter addressing the University of Peshawar convocation here onMonday.

The governor said on the prime minister`s directives, he had held meetings with the JUI-F chief and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai and convinced them on reforms in tribal areas.

`Fata will merge with KP very soon after both leaders are convinced,` he said, addingthat reforms process in the tribal areas would be initiated very soon.

He said the JUI-F chief wanted to take the government to know the local residents` opinion about Fata`s future through a referendum before the merger.

He said an overwhelming majority of the people of Fata favoured the region`s merger with KP and therefore, the government couldn`t ignore their demand.

The JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, allies of the ruling PML-N the centre, are opposing the Fata-KP merger, causing delay in the implementation of the report of the committee.

Earlier, the governor told the convocation that institutions of higher learning needed to fully concentrate on the promotion of education, development of knowledge and strengthening of research activities.

`This aspect bears greatimportance to the enabling of the nation to pace with the modern day needs for its socio-economic uplift, an official statement quoted the governor as saying.

Vice-chancellor of the university Prof Mohammad Asif Khan, higher education secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah, faculty members, and graduating students and their par-ents were present on the occasion.

The governor said higher education was proving to be a big source in bringing positive impact in the life standards of the people.

He said the youths were the hope of the nation as for its future was concerned, which greatly depended upon the role and value of services to be contributed by them in the time to come.

The governor asked graduates to continue their focus on seeking quality learning and said they should apply their knowledge for projectinggood name of the nation and their own-self as well.

Felicitating graduates, he said their successes reflect the success of the entire nation.

Earlier, the VC presented the annual performance report of the university.The governor later gave away degrees to 345 graduates of various disciplines and got gold medals to 26 of them for extraordinary academic performance.

He also announced Rs5,000 cash prize for them each.