PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the party is not against the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a fresh summary has been drafted for the federal cabinet which calls for mainstreaming of Fata.
“The matter has been resolved and the tribal area will be brought to the mainstream,” he said. He clarified that his party was not against the merger of Fata with the province.
Addressing his party’s office-bearers and lawyers in Peshawar on Sunday, he said the revised summary would be presented before the cabinet for approval in its next meeting.
“In revised summary, the word mainstreaming of Fata has been inserted instead of its merger with the province,” he said, adding that the six-member committee had overstepped its mandate by recommending merger of the tribal belt with KP in its report.
“The committee’s mandate was to recommend reforms to bring the tribal area to the mainstream. But the committee recommended merger of Fata with the province,” he said while criticising the report of the committee headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.
The Prime Minister Office issued a statement on Thursday, saying that the Fata reforms package would be placed before the next meeting of the cabinet. The JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party — allies of the PML-N government in the centre — have been opposing the merger of Fata with KP without seeking the opinion of tribal people.
“Our stance about Fata is very clear,” he said, adding that his party insisted on seeking the opinion of tribal people. He said deciding the future of Fata without knowing aspiration of its people was like the imposition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation on the tribal areas by the colonial British rulers.
