PESHAWAR, April 4: A group of Fata lawmakers has announced to table a bill in parliament for replacing the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) with Shariah laws in their region. Accompanied by Senator Mateen Shah and MNA Maulana Abdul Malik, MNA from the South Waziristan Agency Maulana Mirajuddin Qureshi told journalists at a press conference here on Monday that a nine-member parliamentary committee had been constituted to draft a proposed bill.

He said the committee, comprising MNAs and senators from Fata, would hold discussions with ulema, legal experts and tribal elders before formulating the draft.

?The government should replace the notorious FCR laws with Shariat in the tribal areas as tribesmen will not accept any other system,? Mr Qurishi said.

He said it was a demand and the people of tribal areas wanted implementation of Shariat in Fata instead of another legal or administrative system in the name of reforms.

The MNA said a two-day seminar had been organized for the tribal parliamentarians in Peshawar in which various aspects of the FCR, its alternatives and the state of human rights violations in the region had been discussed.

He rejected the Senate standing committee on the FCR, headed by Senator Farhatullah Babar, saying that irrelevant people had been included in the body.

The nine-member committee, he said, would also contact the ruling party to help pass the bill from parliament.

In reply to a question, he said army troops should vacate all security checkpoints in the North and South Waziristan agencies and move towards the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The government should negotiate with the foreigners hiding in area instead of using military force, he added.