Online News Paper

PAKISTAN, ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday night announced major legal and political reforms in the Tribal Areas to extricate them from a century of bondage and subservience and usher them into mainstream of national life describing it as a gift to the nation and the tribal people on the Nation’s 63rd Independence Day.
The government has fulfilled its promise and now people in Fata can have an identity as they will participate in political activities and exercise their right to vote, the President said while addressing the nation in a live PTV Special Show held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on the occasion of Independence Day.
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Chairman Senate Farooq Naek, Speaker National Assembly Fehmida Mirza, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Aseefa Bhutto Zardari, Federal Ministers, Parliamentarians, Diplomats and high-ranking government officials were present on the occasion.
The President said Pakistan’s future lies in democracy and every Pakistani has a right and duty to nurture democratic values.
He said Quaid-e-Azam succeeded in gaining an Islamic country through a democratic struggle.
“Democracy gave Pakistan and democracy saved Pakistan” and now all citizens can live in this country with honour, he said adding the nation should be thankful for a free and democratic Pakistan.
The President said the government will take into confidence all political parties inside and outside the parliament, on national issues.
All parties including PML(N), ANP, MQM and others will be together on national issues and everybody will strengthen each other and stand united, he added.
He said living nations face challenges and recalled when their democratic government took over, the country was near bankruptcy and a handful of extremists wanted to take hold of Pakistan.
He saluted the jawans of Armed Forces who sacrificed their lives to safeguard the nation and people who stood with the government at that critical juncture.
The President thanked the host families for opening their hearts and doors for the dislocated people and said the government would not have met the challenge of militancy without the support of people.
He prayed for the continuity of democracy so that future generations can stay safe from the dangers of dictatorship.
Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the package of political reforms for Fata hammered out after consultation with all stakeholders had been approved a day earlier in a meeting in the Presidency that was also attended by the Prime Minister and which urged the President to announce it any time he deemed fit.
President Asif Ali Zardari decided to make the announcement in his address to the nation on the eve of 63rd Independence Day, he said.
Farhatullah Babar said that the political and judicial reforms announced tonight by President Zardari envisage extension of the Political Parties Order to the Tribal Areas on the one hand and changes in the century old anachronistic law called Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) to make it responsive to the human rights of the people while respecting the local customs and traditions.
The President said that Pakistan was created through a democratic struggle and through democracy it will be made strong and prosperous.