PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that a fresh summary has been drafted for the federal cabinet which calls for mainstreaming of Fata and not its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The matter has been resolved and tribal area will be brought to the mainstream,” he said. He clarified that his party was not against the merger of Fata with the province.

Addressing his party’s office-bearers and lawyers here on Sunday, he said the revised summary would be presented before the cabinet for approval in its next meeting.

“In revised summary the word mainstreaming of Fata has been inserted instead of its merger with the province,” he said, adding that the six-member committee had overstepped its mandate by recommending merger of tribal belt with KP in its report.

Says fresh summary for cabinet calls for mainstreaming of Fata, not its merger with the province

“The committee’s mandate was to recommend reforms to bring tribal area to the mainstream. But the committee recommended merger of Fata with the province,” he said while criticising the report of the committee headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

It is worth mentioning here that the cabinet had dropped the Fata reforms issue from the agenda in its Feb 6 meeting, which created hue and cry in political circles. Parliamentarians from Fata and several political parties announced that they would hold a sit-in in Islamabad next month in protest against the cabinet’s decision.

The Prime Minister Office issued a statement on Thursday, saying that the Fata reforms package would be placed before the next meeting of the cabinet. The JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party — allies of the PML-N government in the centre — have been opposing the merger of Fata with KP without seeking opinion of tribal people.

Maulana Fazl said that he had discussed the Fata reforms package with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who had agreed to place the document before the cabinet in its upcoming meeting. He claimed that the cabinet would approve the summary.

“Our stance about Fata is very clear,” he said, adding that his party insisted on seeking opinion of tribal people. He said deciding the future of Fata without knowing aspiration of its people was like the imposition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation on the tribal areas by the colonial British rulers.

“Let the people of Fata decide whether they want a separate province for themselves or want merger with KP,” he said, adding that the JUI-F’s point of view about the future of Fata was misinterpreted in the media.

Maulana Fazl said that the merger of Fata with the province was a foreign agenda and recent statement of the US government in favour of the merger had proved it. He said US officials had assured the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s provincial government that it supported the merger.

“The US support has exposed PTI connections with its foreign masters,” he said.

The JUI-F leader said that America had waged a war against Islam and Muslims under the garb of war on terror. He said policies of US President Donald Trump had proved that the US-led war on terror was not against terrorism, but to target Islam and Muslims.

Published in Dawn February 13th, 2017