Stalemate persists as tribal elders’ council puts strings to FATA mainstreaming plan 

• Advisor to PM confirms no breakthrough has taken place, says ‘seven-decades-old issues cannot be resolved in seven minutes’

• Supreme council’s member says have shared their concerns with PM, asking him to take concrete measures before FATA mainstreaming bill

ISLAMABAD: A stalemate persisted in talks between the federal government and supreme council of tribal elders from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi failed to convince the elders on mainstreaming bill of the government on tribal areas.

Sources privy to the dialogue process told Pakistan Today that the supreme council members informed the prime minister on their reservations over the FATA mainstreaming bill.

They repeated the same that people of the region don’t want to merge with KP, and want to retain their status as FATA, not even demanding a separate province.

Brig (R) Nazir Ahmed, a member of the FATA supreme council, said that deadlock persisted and there was no headway in talks.

“We have shared our concerns with the prime minister and have asked him to take concrete measures before FATA mainstreaming bill. The prime minister has sought some time for the same,” he said.

Advisor to PM Barrister Zafarullah Khan confirmed no breakthrough has taken place by telling media that “seven-decades-old issues cannot be resolved in seven minutes.” He added it was decided that talks would continue and the matter would be resolved through dialogue.

A source said that the FATA supreme council had shared its reservations against mainstreaming plan of FATA, and its members had insisted on keeping FATA a separate identity.

The sources said that prime minister had sought some time and he would take some measures in the next few days before presenting the FATA mainstreaming bill in the National Assembly.

The source added that following these measures, the FATA mainstreaming bill would be tabled in the National Assembly.

It merits mentioning here that FATA lawmakers and joint opposition have been continuously staging a boycott of the National Assembly proceedings over the government’s reluctance to table the FATA bill in the National Assembly.

Though SAFRON minister Abdul Qadir Baloch on Wednesday had assured the house that FATA bill would be tabled today (Thursday), the failed talks between PM and FATA supreme council had resulted into further delay in tabling the bill.

In a late night move, the National Assembly secretariat also issued the agenda of the National Assembly for Thursday which did not carry the FATA bill.

A source in the FATA supreme council informed the prime minister that before taking any measure on the FATA status, there was a dire need for the provision of funds for the building of basic infrastructure.

“We have informed the prime minister that over the decades, the federal government has paid no heed to the infrastructure building in FATA. While the war on terrorism has badly affected our infrastructure, the government has ignored FATA’s rebuilding process,” the source said.

The source added that the tribal elders also wanted to take the tribal grand jirga into confidence before any decision on the FATA bill. It is pertinent to mention here that last week, a grand jirga of tribal elders had rejected a proposal to annex FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Two government allied parties—Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led UI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) of Mahmood Achakzai—are already opposing the idea to merge FATA into KP.

Both Achakzai and Fazl have used their influence on disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif to block FATA’s merger into KP.

It was Nawaz Sharif himself who had initiated the move by forming a committee on FATA reforms led by his advisor Sartaj Aziz. The committee had proposed to abolish the black law of FCR; rather expand the rule of the Constitution by merging FATA with KP. However, the federal government has been dragging its feet since Achakzai and Fazl opposed the move, fearing it would benefit their archrival Imran Khan whose party rules KP.

FATA supreme council is considered to be a body with close linkages to the JUI-F chief which has been opposing FATA’s merger with KP.

Last week, after a meeting between FATA supreme council and JUI-F’s Ameer of Fata chapter Mufti Abdul Shakoor, the council had dubbed the merger proposal as “US plan”.

The council had also threatened the government to launch protest drives if the “agenda was fulfilled.”

Later, PM Abbasi had decided to meet with the council leaders on demand by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.