ISLAMABAD: The government bill on reforms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be tabled in the National Assembly on Dec 11, and the legislation process would be completed on a fast-track basis, announced Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch and Planning Commission’s deputy chairman Sartaj Aziz on Friday.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Aziz, Mr Baloch said that officials concerned would begin releasing tranches from the three per cent of the federal divisible pool — amounting to Rs100 billion set aside for Fata — next week.

He said that Fata’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could take a year or two. “Merger is not possible without complete preparation; however the government is trying hard to complete the preparation work and announce the merger during its tenure because it has worked hard on the process and it wants to take credit of this historic decision,” the minister said.

Fata reforms bill to be tabled in NA on 11th

He said the government was committed to abolishing the Frontier Crimes Regulation on a priority basis because it denied residents of the tribal region the right to lodge any appeal in any court for change in conviction, the right to legal representation and the right to present reasoned evidence.

He said the Rs100bn allocated for Fata would be spent on various projects in the health, education, water, energy and other sectors for socioeconomic development of the people of tribal areas.

Mr Baloch said the ‘rahdari system’ was also being abolished in Fata from Jan 1. He said that under the system heavy taxes were imposed on any commodity being transported from other parts of the country to Fata.

He said a Council of Advisory had been set up comprising members of the National Assembly and Senate from Fata. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor would be bound to implement the advice of this committee.

“The additional chief secretary of Fata has been assigned the role of Fata’s chief operating officer to control [manage] the issues of the region,” the minister added.

He said that Fata had 2,293 vacant posts in the health and education sectors. Of them, 1,440 posts had already been sanctioned while the remaining ones would be sanctioned within 15 days.

In response to a question, the minister said the government was not delaying any project as it had sufficient funds of Rs80bn for the current fiscal year.

For his part, the Planning Commission’s deputy chairman said there were no administrative, financial or political hurdles in the way of Fata’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the government was implementing all the recommendations made by the Fata Reforms Committee in January this year.

Mr Aziz said the government would present a bill in the National Assembly on Dec 11 that was likely to be approved. After that the bill would be tabled in the upper house of parliament.

He said that in order to mainstream Fata economically, a committee had been formed which had almost completed its work. The committee would submit its report to the National Economic Council by the end of this month.

He said the process for inducting an additional 20,000 personnel into the Levies Force would be finalised within three months. The recruitment process was being managed by the Frontier Corps.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017