LAHORE: More than 500 tribal leaders on Thursday convened in a jirga to declare their disapproval of the possible merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Announcing a protest on December 23 in Islamabad, the leaders of the tribes reiterated their opinion that FATA should be given the status of a separate province.
Earlier today, the members of the opposition parties walked out from the National Assembly (NA) to pressurise the government to introduce the FATA Reforms Bill.
The recommendations to bring the tribal areas at par with the rest of the country were approved by the federal cabinet on March 2 but the matter has been delayed since then.