Tribal elders oppose FATA’s merger with KP

KHYBER AGENCY: More than 500 tribal elders held a grand jirga on Thursday and rejected the possible merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The elders, hailing from the tribal areas, were of the opinion that FATA should be given the status of a separate province.

The jirga also announced to hold a protest on December 23 in Islamabad.

The issue of the merger of the FATA with KP is one of the pending matters for the incumbent government and has dominated the political discourse of the country in recent weeks.

Earlier today, the members of opposition parties staged a walkout from the National Assembly (NA) in a bid to press the government to introduce the FATA Reforms Bill.

The recommendations to bring the tribal areas at par with the rest of the country were approved by the federal cabinet on March 2 but the matter has been delayed since then.

Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah said the government wanted to sideline the FATA reforms and the area's merger with KP.

Demanding FATA reforms, opposition walks out of NA

PPP's Naveeed Qamar said the government is being blackmailed to not present the bill in Parliament

On Dec 11, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) began its long march from Khyber Agency to Parliament in Islamabad to press for the merger with the province.

Imran Khan also demanded the government to immediately table a "full package of FATA reforms", which should include the abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation, extension of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court's jurisdiction to FATA and an amendment in Article 106 of the Constitution to allow an increase of seats in the KP Assembly to accommodate representatives from the tribal areas.

The KP Assembly had adopted a resolution on December 14, 2016 in favour of merging FATA with KP that would help rehabilitate and reconstruct the infrastructure including roads, communications, power lines, water supply, education and health facilities.

Almost all the political parties support the demand of merger of Fata with KP, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

It is pertinent to mention here that FATA is being governed by the British-era law called FCR Act that legal experts say is a violation of universal human rights and contradicts the 1973 Constitution. Sources said the merger of FATA with KP would extend the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high court to the tribal areas by amending the Article 247 and other relevant laws, so that those who want to protect their fundamental rights can do so like any other citizen of Pakistan.