- SAFRON ministry officials to brief PM on FATA-KP merger on 10th
ISLAMABAD: In a move to materialise the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) under the 25th Constitutional Amendment, 2018, the federal government has formed a taskforce to remove anomalies in the execution plan and to accelerate process of the merger.
The newly-formed taskforce would be convened by Advisor to Prime Minister on Establishment Division Muhammad Shehzad Arbab. Other members include KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, KP Governor Shah Farman and former federal secretary Habibullah Khattak, while SAFRON Secretary Muhammad Aslam was made secretary of the taskforce.
In the aftermath of the 25th Constitutional Amendment, which has validated the merger of FATA with KP, there was an immediate need to devise initial plans to streamline the implementation of this constitutionally mandated merger. However, sources in the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) told Pakistan Today that the previous government, led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), did all the work hastily during the last leg of its tenure, resulting in reoccurring issues.
They said keeping in mind the importance of the issue, Prime Minister Imran Khan, soon after assuming the charge, categorically directed the concerned quarters to speed up the merger process and take necessary steps to remove all the bottlenecks in order to ensure smooth execution of the plan without any delay.
According to sources, the incumbent government was very serious in the timely implementation of the merger plan; hence the SAFRON Ministry has been directed to prepare a detailed report pertaining to the execution of the merger. The prime minister would be given a detailed briefing on September 10 in this regard, they confirmed.
The officials said that in order to materialise the merger of FATA with KP, integration of FATA Secretariat with KP Civil Secretariat was of utmost importance. Hence, a plan was devised to integrate FATA Secretariat with KP Civil Secretariat KP in two phases.
The ministry officials said that a meticulously structured approach for the required administrative integration was recommended in order to avoid any administrative vacuum and friction. However, they added, the new government formulated the taskforce because the issue was highly complicated with several legal issues resurfacing to the fore.
They informed that separate policing plans were required for the tribal districts and tribal sub-divisions owing to the varying degrees of tribal affinity in the two entities. However, they said that the dynamics of FATA’s merger with KP necessitates reorganisation of the existing law enforcement agencies, including Levies and Khasadars, in tribal districts and sub-divisions.
The officials said that issue of the Levies and Khasadar force was of serious nature, as there total strength was more than 47,000, of which around 20,000 were levies while the remaining 17,000 belonged to Khasadar force. They revealed that the Khasadar personnel filed over hundreds of cases against the ministry which further complicated the matter.
The officials suggested against the integration of Levies and Khasadar force with police, saying that it won’t be a viable option. They also suggested against the abolishment of the force. Therefore, like Frontier Corps, they recommended, the government should allow this force in some form or the other since it was a century-old system, which needs to be modernised.
The taskforce would look into this matter on a priority basis as it was the issue of around 47,000 families, who could move to courts and create lot of problems for the government, the officials added.