PESHAWAR: The federal government on Tuesday decided to dissolve the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) following the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Talking to a private media outlet, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said: “After the merger of FATA, the provincial government will look over the affairs of the tribal areas which is why we have decided to dissolve the Ministry of SAFRON.”
“There are over 1.7 million Afghan refugees in the country who are our guests and we want them to be safely repatriated.” Furthermore, officials within the government report that it plans to close down the FATA Secretariat.
“The Ministry of Interior overlooks the issues of refugees which is why the four Afghan commissioners and chief commissioner for Afghan refugees which were reporting to the Ministry of SAFRON will now be under the interior ministry,” according to reports.
There are 17,000 Khasadar Force troops and 11,000 Levies personnel were deployed in tribal areas, the officials reported: “A decision will be taken soon regarding whether the Levies and Khasadar force should be under the federal or the provincial government.”
