PESHAWAR, Aug 17: A provincial leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Anwar Kamal Marwat has said that the extension of Political Parties Order to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will be useless without the announcement of a comprehensive economic development package for the tribal areas.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, he said that the federal government did not take the political parties into confidence while announcing the amendments to the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

He said that all the political parties had started a joint movement for the FCR reforms and extension of Political Parties Act to the Fata. However, he said that their main demand was the economic package for tribal regions so as to bring backward areas at par with the developed areas of the country.

He said that the political parties, including PML-N, had agreed under a platform of non-political organisation about the Fata reforms. He said that President Asif Ali Zardari had taken all political parties into confidence on extension of Political Parities Act and financial package to the Fata, and developed consensus on it. However, the political parties were not consulted about the amendments to the FCR, he said.

“We had also apprised the president of the hardships confronting the tribesmen such as unavailability of basic human rights in Fata that need to be addressed,” he said. The PML-N leader said that judiciary and executive should be separated and a single person (political agent) should not be given the powers of judiciary.

Flanked by another party activist Rahmat Salam, Mr Marwat said that the political parties had given their proposals for the amendments to the FCR in a meeting of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) held in Islamabad, but the suggestions were ignored.

Mr Marwat maintained that the Collective Responsibility Clause had not been abolished rather some unnecessary changes were made to it to deceive the masses. “Extension of jurisdiction of the High Court and Supreme Court to Fata and giving the right of appeal to an accused were also proposed in the NDI meeting, but the suggestions have not been given any weightage,” he lamented.

He said that a meeting of the PML-N leaders belonging to all the regions of Fata had been convened to discuss the matter and devise the future line of action. —Bureau Report