PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday said the federal government should refrain from making decisions on Fata’s future, which would push parliament on a confrontational path with tribal people.

“We don’t want confrontation on the issue of Fata. We are trying to find out a solution (to the problem), which is acceptable to all stakeholders,” he told reporters here when asked about his party’s course of action if the federal cabinet’s decision on the mainstreaming of Fata wasn’t reviewed.

“I don’t believe in ifs and buts. The JUI-F will act in accordance with the decision taken by the grand jirga,” he said after attending a jirga of tribal elders at the party’s secretariat.

Elders, Fata Senators and MNAs opposed to the cabinet-approved reforms package for the tribal region attended the jirga.

Says he’s trying to find a solution to the issue, which is acceptable to all stakeholders

The event was organised for discussion on the situation post the cabinet’s decision on the Fata mainstreaming. On March 2, the federal cabinet approved the suggestions of the six-member committee to bring Fata into the mainstream and merge it with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after five years.

The JUI-F, a coalition partner of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the centre, has been opposing the move.

Mr Fazl said he had formally conveyed his reservations about the cabinet decisions on Fata to the prime minister declaring those decisions ‘very ambiguous’.

He said on one hand, the government was giving representation to Fata people in the KP Assembly through the 2018 elections but on the other, it recommended the merger of the tribal region with the province after five years.

“The prime minister wants to continue with the dialogue on the cabinet’s decisions. Talks are under way on the issue,” he said.

The JUI-F chief said the jirga rejected the Fata-KP merger and demanded the opinion of the people of tribal areas be sought on their region’s future. He said a majority of Fata parliamentarians had rejected the cabinet’s decisions with only three to four lawmakers favouring them.

Mr Fazl said the jirga wanted the early return and rehabilitation of internally displaced persons from Fata.

Rejecting the official claims of the 90 per cent repatriation of IDPs, he claimed only 20 per cent of displaced persons had returned. The JUI-F chief said the government should hold the population census in Fata on the basis of house census.

He complained about the posting of blasphemous material on social media and asked the government to block such stuff without delay and take serious action against blasphemers.

“If the government and state machinery don’t fulfil its responsibilities, then the people will take the law into their own hands. The government will have to take serious measures to block blasphemous material on the social media,” he said.

The elders asked the JUI-F chief to block any bill on the proposed reforms in tribal areas in parliament.

Senator Salih Shah said the federal government had two-thirds majority in parliament and therefore, it could easily get the bill on Fata reforms passed.

“We should make a strategy to block the introduction of the cabinet’s decisions in parliament for approval by holding a sit-in in Islamabad or staging strikes or holding protest rallies,” he said.

The lawmaker said the provinces had refused to allocate three per cent share of the divisible pool under the National Finance Commission Award. Karim Mehsud advocate of South Waziristan Agency that parliament had no powers to pass a bill on Fata.

He said the tabling of a bill on Fata in parliament would be unconstitutional.

“Don’t make Fata another occupied Kashmir,” he said urging the government not to take the opinion of the elders into consideration.

He said the US and some NGOs had drafted the Fata reforms package, which was unacceptable to the tribal people.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017