ISLAMABAD: The fourth meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Com­mittee on States and Fron­tier Regions (Safron) on the Rewaj Bill for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas remained inconclusive on Friday and it decided to discuss the matter again in its next session.

Members of the committee belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata pressed for further discussions on the bill that would abolish the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) enacted in 1867.

However, the delay caused unrest among the non-Pakhtun members, who termed it deliberate.

Sheikh Fayyazuddin of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said: “If you want to abolish the FCR and implement reforms in Fata then why not approve this bill.”

His words were received by stares and queries from the Pakhtun members and the MNAs specially invited to the meeting.

Sheikh Fayyaz wondered whether the committee’s members wanted the assembly to be elected after the general elections due next year to adopt the reform law.

At the outset of the meeting presided over by the committee’s chairman Muhammad Jamaluddin, some members expressed their intention to boycott it because of the absence of Safron Minister retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch but he arrived before they could walk out.

Mr Baloch asked the committee’s secretary if it was necessary for the ministers to be present in all the meetings and the answer was that it was not mandatory.

“Then you all should have continued to finalise and approve this bill titled ‘The Tribal Areas Rewaj Bill, 2017’, this is important for the future of Fata,” the minister said.

He informed the committee that the FCR law in Fata would be repealed with the adoption of the bill and this was a longstanding demand of the people of the region.

However, committee member Nasir Khan mentioned rumours that the government had backed off from Fata reforms.

Retired Lt Gen Baloch said MNAs Shah Jee Gul Afridi and Shahabuddin Khan from Fata had been levelling the incorrect accusation against the government.

“Shah Jee Gul Afridi has left no corner where he has not spoken anything that came to his mind against me and the army chief, but I did not respond, because I have a place in the society and cannot fall so low,” the minister said. He recounted the efforts made to finalise the Fata reform package.

He briefed the committee on the salient features of the bill and said 26 recommendations had been made by the Fata Reforms Committee for bringing the region into the mainstream in five years.

He said the standing committee had the mandate to pass or reject the bill, but the MNAs belonging to Fata and KP had preferred to defer it till the next meeting.

MNAs Bismillah Khan and Belal Rehman even suggested that Fata reforms be deferred for 10 years and a council comprising MNAs and senators from the region formed to execute the proposed Rs110 billion development programme.

Some MNAs from KP demanded rehabilitation of Fata’s residents as a precondition to the implementation of any reform package there.

However, the minister said that if the reforms were deferred then the process would have to be re-launched from scratch, while MNAs from Punjab and Sindh, including Aftab Shaban Mirani, suggested that the bill be approved at the earliest for the benefit of Fata and mainstreaming of its residents.

The chairman announced that the Rewaj Bill would be approved in the next meeting.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2017