Peshawar — Political leaders and tribal elders demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to allocate at least 40 provincial constituencies to the erstwhile Fata, merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
At a seminar organized by a local social and political group ‘Khyber Union’ at Bara Press Club on Sunday, the political leaders and workers expressed reservations over the proposed addition of 16 new seats to the KP assembly from the merged tribal districts.
Politicians from various political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Abdul Ghani, former Minister Hameedullah Jan, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders Suhail Ahmad, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Azghar Khan, Bazar Gul, Muhammad Shafiq and Murad Saqi addressed the seminar.
The speakers said, that government was in haste to announce Fata’s merger without any mechanism. They said, now they are facing problems to exercise the first-ever polls for the proposed provincial seats in KP.
The leaders also announced to challenge the demarcation of Khyber tribal district’s PK-106 and PK-107 constituencies in ECP. They said, they will work further on demanding increase in the provincial constituencies up to 40 or more.
For the purpose, they formed a 12-member committee of various parties to challenge the proposed constituencies allocation in ECP.
The tribal leaders also warned to stage protests if ECP did not addressed their concernes over the proposed delimitation list of Fata’s provincial constituencies.
The ECP has issued a delimitation list proposed 16 constituencies including three seats each from Bajur and Khyber districts, two seats each from Kurrum, Mahmand, South Waziristan and North Waziristan districts, while one each from Orakzai and Frontier Region districts.