KHYBER: Fata Loya Jirga (FLJ) has cautioned about forcible ‘usurpation’ of the natural resources in tribal districts and pledged to protect these assets at ‘all costs’.

At a meeting held here on Sunday with FLJ chief Bismillah Khan Afridi in the chair, the participants called upon both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to avoid ‘occupying’ the natural resources existing in the tribal areas. They said that only the people of the tribal districts were the actual owners of these resources, which have been hidden in the region for centuries.

The FLJ also took exception to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s declared position of linking the passage of mines and minerals bill from the provincial assembly to the release of its leader Imran Khan, and said that any such move would strongly be resisted by the people of tribal districts.

“These minerals are not brought along by River Kabul nor are these gifted by any political force, but are a gift of the nature to us, which nobody could snatch from us,” the participants of the meeting resolved.

The meeting also resolved that it would not allow the KP government to use it as a bargain tool for the release of Imran Khan as the provincial government had been ‘unjustifiably usurping’ the funds and resources of the newly merged districts.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2025