PESHAWAR: Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed inaugurated on Saturday the first passport office in Miranshah, the district headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, as the government has renewed its commitment of mainstreaming the volatile and war-torn region.
In 2018, Pakistan’s parliament voted to merge the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, once known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The move gave the region’s 5 million residents, the vast majority of them ethnic Pashtuns, the same constitutional rights as Pakistanis living in the rest of the country.
The changes were meant to bring relief to the area that had long suffered from the presence of militant groups and military operations against them. But while it has been merged into Pakistan’s political and legal mainstream, development and institutional reform are slow, with many in the region not even having most basic identity documents.
“The government will provide more funds to the area for development activities,” Rasheed told tribal leaders during the inauguration ceremony. He added that passport offices will soon be opened also in other areas of the tribal region to help facilitate cross-border movement with Afghanistan, develop local trade and create job opportunities.
As tribal elders complained over the slow pace of development activities, Malik Khan Marjan, a tribal chief from North Waziristan, told Arab News that the minister promised to arrange their meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“The interior minister has promised us that he will lead a delegation of tribesmen to have a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan very soon to have a discussion with the premier on our problems,” Marjan said.
“You fought the war for the country’s survival and the nation is proud of your sacrifices,” Rasheed told the tribal leaders. “Positive impact of tribal areas’ merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be felt soon.”