ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his Party would merge FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as per the aspiration of the people of tribal areas when the PPP returns to power.
The PPP Chairman held out this assurance during a meeting with Akhunzada Chattan Vice President Pakistan People’s Party Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and former MNA, who called on him at Zardari House, Islamabad. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in August 2011, then-President Asif Ali Zardari amended the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), a British-era law curtailing FATA residents’ rights, and extended the Political Parties Act (PPA) 2002 to the tribal areas. Tribal Areas saw the first-ever Party-based elections in 2013 following the PPP legislation.
The PPP Chairman also admired Akhunzada Chattan for holding big public meeting of the Party in Bajaur Agency adding that PPP would continue political activities in FATA for the rights of the tribal people. Separately, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that his party had remained a force of the people in the past, was a force of the people today and would always be a force of people of Pakistan.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of office bearers of the PPP Islamabad district and Islamabad city, which called on him at Zardari House Islamabad on Wednesday. Bilawal Bhutto said that the party workers were the strength of Benazir Bhutto and they are his strength as well. Party won by-elections in Karachi and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), which proves that no one can compete his party in elections, he maintained. He said that PPP has strong candidates from every constituency throughout Pakistan and the people who have left the Party will soon be forgotten. These anti-people individuals never served the people of Pakistan and they are in politics to serve their own interests. He asked Party workers to work hard so that next elections could be won. Delegation consisted of President PPP district Islamabad Shakil Abbasi, General Secretary Raja Amjad Mehmood, PPP Islamabad city President Shahzada Iftikhar, General Secretary Azhar Khan, Malik Sajjad, and Ali Sabzwari.
Published in Daily Times, July 13th , 2017.
