PESHAWAR: Formally reacting to the federal government’s recent approval of the Fata mainstreaming plan, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has asked the centre to remove ‘anomalies’ from the cabinet’s decisions on reforms and warned if that doesn’t happen, a ‘far larger’ chaos will ensue.

“I don’t reject the decisions of the federal cabinet regarding the mainstreaming of Fata, but it requires the point by point discussion with the KP government,” Chief Minister Pervez Khattak told reporters here on Monday.

“There are certain points in the plan which needs clarity and I will write a letter to the prime minister in this regard,” he said.

“Shockingly, the federal government is merging a large territory with but the provincial government has not been assigned any role.”

The CM said Sartaj Aziz, who headed the reforms committee, held only one meeting with him.

The federal cabinet had approved the recommendations of the six-member reforms committee to bring Fata into the mainstream and merge tribal areas with KP after five years.

In response, the KP government gave response to all 24 points approved by the cabinet that would lead to the merger of the tribal region with the province after five years.

Khattak says he will write to premier for clarity on tribal areas mainstreaming plan

“The proposal to amend (the Constitution’s) Article 106 is not sufficient. Articles 1, 246 and 247, too, need amendment,” he said, demanding dissolution of the civil secretariat Fata and transfer of the administrative authority from the KP governor to the provincial government.

Mr Khattak said the federal government instead of making new experiments should transfer full authority to the province and take the KP government on board during the transition period.

“It will be very strange that Fata will be given representation in the KP Assembly in 2018 general elections but its MPAs will have no role in legislation and budget making,” he said, adding that such representation would be useless.

“The vague point is that the region will be outside the administrative authority of the province. However, at the same time, the provincial government will be answerable to the MPAs of Fata,” he said.

The CM said the mainstreaming of the areas had created confusion and therefore, his government needed full clarity on it.

He asked the federal government to clearly define difference between the merger and mainstreaming.

Mr Khattak said the KP government believed in the merger of Fata with the province but suggested the intent behind mainstreaming was something else, it should be clearly spelled out.

He said the word ‘after five years’ created confusion and after the passage of the constitutional amendments, it should be left to the provincial government to decide about transition and merger.

The CM warned if elections were held and the people of Fata elected their representatives for the KP Assembly but they had no powers or jurisdiction, then all that would create a ‘far larger’ chaos.

He said it did not make any sense to send members to the assembly, which was not given any authority over a territory from where it was accepting members.

“I don’t understand this logic,” he said.

The provincial government proposed that the governor and chief minister jointly chair the special committee that would prioritise the preparation of 10 years socio-economic development plan for tribal areas.

It suggested that chief secretary, additional chief secretary and administrative secretaries be included in the committee.

Mr Khattak said his government supported the allocation of three per cent of the federal divisible pool on annual basis for Fata and that he had already informed the prime minister about it.

He said the KP government had strong reservations about the formation of the Governor’s Advisory Council comprising all Fata senators and MNAs.

The CM said the provincial government and its secretariat should be allowed to assist the governor during the transition phase, which should be as short as possible.

He said he supported the party-based local body elections in Fata and increase in the powers of Fata Development Committee from Rs400 million to Rs2 billion.

Mr Khattak proposed that the extension of the writ of the superior judiciary be made part of the proposed Riwaj Act instead of through a separate Act of Parliament.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017