- Government and military are both agreed on KP-Fata union
The most significant national topic debated nowadays is the long-delayed but much sought after merger of KP-Fata, which fusion has often seemed on the verge of consummation, but could not come to a satisfactory conclusion, despite federal cabinet approval of the Committee on Fata Reforms’recommendations as far back asMarch 2017. A policy statement from the PM in September, as assured in the national assembly by federal minister for states and frontier regions, in response to criticism from PTI benches and 11 MNAs and 12 Senators of Fata, never materialised. But, on December 18, 2017, in a quantum leap, the National Implementation Committee on Fata Reforms, comprising among others, the PM and the COAS, and that is about as high-level as it gets, endorsed the elusive unification, again pursuant to a government policy statement. The agreement includes partial repeal of the Frontier Crimes Regulations, 23 elected members from Fata to sit in KP Assembly after 2018 elections, eventually placing Fata under superior courts’ jurisdiction, and combining office of Fata’s additional chief secretary with that of its proposed Chief Operating Officer for smooth transition.
The PML-N, PTI and PPP are agreeable, as are, apparently, the majority of the region’s inhabitants. A formidable obstacle is the JUI-F chief, also a key government ally, but a recent trilateral meeting with the PM and the COAS and gentle ‘persuasion’ might have softened his former tough and unbending stance, but the Maulana’s green light will hardly be the end of the merger tunnel. Of even greater urgency is ready availability of the vast funds required for the comprehensive mainstreaming of a backward area with a settled, relatively prosperous one, said to be an allocation of three percent of the National Finance Commission Award.The 7th NFC Award of 2010 with its constitutional limits of five years has lapsed, and a new Commission has to be constituted by the president under Article 160 of the Constitution for the hard cash. This normally time-consuming process needs acceleration to fast-track the merger and make it workable.