I want to draw the attention of the concerned quarters regarding the resentment and despondency among the tribal youth in the wake of the abolishment of the separate quota in services and admissions in professional colleges, in the wake of the merger of FATA with KPK. Ironically, FATA was merged with KPK without getting the consent and approval of the majority of the populace. It is pertinent to mention that the tribal areas had willingly joined Pakistan on the eve of partition and guarded the Western frontiers of the country since then.
However, the traumatic developments of 9/11 had utterly transformed these areas and made them a battleground causing immense physical and material damages. Unfortunately, the military and the political leadership instead of giving FATA a separate province took the wrong decision in 2018 by merging it with KPK — a province already confronted with myriad administrative and financial issues. Though a lot of promises had been made at the time of the merger, they proved to be hollow slogans. The tribal youth who were deceived in the name of change got a rude shock when the doors of employment in federal jobs and admission in professional colleges were slammed by revoking the separate quota as enshrined in the 1973 Constitution. It is requested that the 4% quota for the tribal districts should be restored in federal jobs and 30% quota be reserved in the provincial services on the line of the Sindh urban-rural quota system.
PARKHA KHAN
Islamabad
