The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Friday failed to table the bill proposing merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the National Assembly.
On Thursday, the federal cabinet had approved moving the 30th Amendment Bill in the parliament, reiterating the promise made by the ruling PML-N government that it intended to take FATA reforms to its logical conclusion before the tenure of the current assemblies ends.
The much-hyped bill has been staunchly opposed by PML-N’s two strongest allies – Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP). Fazl also came down hard on the government in Lower House and termed the merger of FATA with KP a ‘global conspiracy’.
Recently, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has also joined JUI-F and PkMAP and called for a referendum in the tribal areas before any decision in connection with the merger is finalised.
The prime minister has held four meetings with heads of parliamentary parties but so far the JUI-F and the PkMAP are against the merger.
The bill would reportedly ensure the holding of local government elections in the tribal areas in October 2019. Over 100 laws would become applicable to FATA after the passage of the bill.
The seats for the KP assembly would increase to 147 from the current 126 after its merger with FATA, according to the proposed 30th Amendment of the constitution.
Minister of States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch informed the House that the reforms package proposed for FATA would include infrastructure development, access to courts, deployment of Frontier Constabulary in the region and allocation of 3% share from the federal divisible pool in the National Finance Commission. In addition, an amount of Rs 100 billion would also be given to FATA annually.
Both the houses of the parliament have already passed a legislation to extend the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (SC) and Peshawar High Court (PHC) to FATA.
Published in Daily Times, May 19th 2018.
