PESHAWAR: The last-ditch efforts are under way to convene the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s session to pass the Constitution (Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2018, formally known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Reforms Bill, for the merger of Fata with the province, sources say.

The sources told Dawn that the backchannel contacts were being made to convince the treasury and opposition benches to unanimously pass the bill in the provincial assembly before the completion of its constitutional tenure on Monday.

The National Assembly passed the bill on Thursday. It will be tabled in the Senate on Friday for review.

An official in the provincial assembly’s secretariat said after the passage from the Senate, the proposed law needed the consent of the KP Assembly and if that didn’t happen, it would be left to the next provincial assembly.

PPP member removes major hurdle to sitting by withdrawing no trust motion against speaker

One major hurdle to the convening of the assembly session was the no confidence motion tabled against Speaker Asad Qaisar by Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Ziaullah Afridi.

However, it was withdrawn on Thursday.

It is learnt that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asked Mr Afridi to withdraw his no-confidence motion against the speaker.

Party sources said the no-confidence motion was withdrawn in the ‘best interest’ of the people of Fata so that the sitting KP Assembly could endorse the Fata-KP merger bill.

Under Article 239(4) of the Constitution, the president cannot assent a constitutional amendment bill which affects geographical boundaries of a province without approval by the assembly of that province.

Article 239(4) of the Constitution reads, “A bill to amend the Constitution which would have the effect of altering the limits of a province shall not be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by the provincial assembly of that province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.”

PPP MPA Nighat Orakzai told Dawn that Ziaullah Afridi had withdrawn the motion following the instructions of the party chairman to extend support to the passage of the Fata reforms bill in the provincial assembly in line with the party policy.

She said the PPP would fully support the bill in the provincial assembly in the best interests of the tribal people as it was a dream of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to develop Fata and bring the region on a par with other developed areas of the country.

The provincial assembly secretary also confirmed the withdrawal of that no-confidence motion by the PPP MPA.

Despite the withdrawal of the no-confidence motion against speaker, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which has lost majority in the 124-strong house, is undecided about the convening of the assembly session to pass the bill.

The government had also skipped the provincial budget due to a lack of majority after the ruling party expelled its 20 MPAs on the charge of selling vote in the recent Senate elections.

Spokesman for the chief minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai told Dawn that the PTI had yet to decide about whether to convene the special session of the assembly to pass the ‘historic’ bill.

“We (PTI) haven’t made our mind about the convening of the assembly,” he said, adding that only party chairman Imran Khan could decide about it.

He said the PTI chief would visit Peshawar today (Friday) and might issue directives to the party about the assembly’s session.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018