Ayesha Gulalai denied seat on stage in 'respect' of tribal customs

ISLAMABAD: MNA Ayesha Gulalai was barred to sit on a stage occupied by men at a protest against the proposed merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) here on Saturday.

Gulalai, who had wanted to join the protestors from FATA, was denied a seat on the stage because, according to the organizers, it wasn’t in line with the tribal customs and traditions for a woman to be seated on the stage.

The legislator was seen trying to reason with the organisers for some time but was repeatedly told that she would not be allowed on stage.

She reluctantly obliged for a while but eventually departed.

The FATA Supreme Council is staging a protest in the federal capital against the proposed merger of FATA with KP. 

FATA tribes should not be pressured to merge with KP: Fazl-ur-Rehman

'Tribes have their own identity and only tribal leaders should make a decision about their land'

The Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Fazl) President Fazl-ur-Rehman in a statement today had said the tribal citizens should not be pressurised for the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

"The tribes have their own identity and only tribal leaders, no one else, should make a decision about their land," Rehman had said while addressing the protest. 

Earlier in December, the FATA Supreme Council held a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and presented its stance to maintain a separate identity.

The matter of FATA's merger with KP was left unresolved after the meeting. However, the tribal areas' supreme council and the government agreed to continue deliberations on the matter.

The issue of FATA's merger with KP is one of the pending matters for the incumbent government and has dominated the political discourse of the country in recent weeks.