Federal cabinet approves FATA’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Thursday approved the recommendations of a reforms committee to bring the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into the national mainstream.

The set of reforms – put forth by a six-member committee headed by PM’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz – included the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, repeal of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and setting a schedule for the repatriation of all temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) by April 30 this year.

The government announced the gradual mainstreaming of FATA in five years while the area would be brought at par with other areas of the country under 10 year special development package, said Sartaj Aziz while announcing the cabinet decisions on the recommendations of the committee.

He said provision would be made through constitutional amendment to enable the people of the tribal belt to elect their representatives to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in the 2018 election along with other consequential amendments.

He further said that the FCR would be replaced with a new Rawaj system as per the recommendations.

Sartaj Aziz said the committee suggested that party based local bodies’ elections be held in FATA soon after the 2018 general elections.

Earlier Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while chairing the cabinet meeting, said the people of FATA, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) would get their due rights.

The meeting was told that the process of mainstreaming of FATA would be carried out in a time span of five years.

The premier, according to a statement released by the Prime Minister’s House, said,“The cabinet accords in principle approval to the recommendations of the FATA reforms committee.” He said the people of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and FATA would be given their due share from national resources.

The much talked about, but equally much delayed FATA reforms package was pulled out at the 11th hour from the cabinet’s meeting on February 7, 2017 eliciting widespread criticism of lawmakers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The two political allies of the government – Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) – had concerns since day one. JUI-F’s chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman recently addressed a public gathering stating that his party was in favour of mainstreaming FATA but not its merger with K-P. Rehman later softened his stance about holding referendum in FATA by stating, “Let people of FATA decide their fate instead of outsiders.”