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‘Fanatics getting 50% young blood from South Punjab’
By Mahtab Bashir
ISLAMABAD: Half of the youth being recruited by religious militants
are from South Punjab, claimed a speaker at a dialogue on Monday.
“Religious militant outfits are engaging 50 per cent young people
for terror acts in the country from South Punjab, 40 per cent from
the Frontier, nine per cent from Sindh and one per cent from
Balochistan,” said Asad Rehman, of Sungi, an NGO, during a
consultation on ‘Development in FATA: Opportunities and Challenges’.
Rehman pushed the FATA people for initiating a campaign to demand
constitutional rights for themselves equal to other citizens of the
country. Noor Muhammad, a political activist from FATA, said the
government didn’t issue the region proper development funds and even
curtailed the pronounced funding. Funds mismanagement: He said FATA
didn’t get due share in resources and almost 30 to 40 percent of the
allocated funding was ‘mismanaged’ by local political and
administrative leadership.
Muhammad said the option to make FATA a separate province or merge
it with the NWFP should be left with the people of the region.
“We’ll decide about the option but before that enforcement of
Political Parties’ Act and establishment of regular judiciary in the
area is necessary,” he said. MNA Shaukatullah said the Frontier
Crime Regulations (FCR) was no sacred document and could be amended
and even done away with if required. He said FATA should be governed
as provinces were being done.
Ayesha Gullala, of Pakistan People’s Party, criticised the US AFPAK
policy and blame the FATA troubles on Washington. She said the US
and the western powers should immediately correct the FATA
‘problem’. She said the FCR should not be repealed but amended.
Meraj Khan Afridi, a human rights activist, said government should
take care of the internally displaced persons on an urgent basis
otherwise they would be forced to settle across the country.
Mukaram Khan Atif, a FATA journalist, said government’s wrong
policies and militancy had played havoc with FATA.
Daily Times:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 |
