Cabinet approves bill to extend superior courts’ jurisdiction to Fata

ISLAMABAD: As a major step towards mainstreaming of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the federal cabinet on Tuesday approved placing of a bill before the parliament that seeks to extend jurisdiction of Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court to the tribal areas.

The decision was taken during a meeting of the federal cabinet with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the chair.

It was decided that after its passage through the parliament, abolition of FCR, extension of jurisdiction of the superior courts and implementation of normal laws of the country would be enforced in the tribal areas in a phased manner.

This will be reinforced by a massive development effort which will be financed through allocation of additional resources from the divisible pool after concurrence of all stakeholders, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's media wing.

A National Implementation Committee under the prime minister has already been constituted for overseeing the political, legal, administrative and developmental mainstreaming of FATA, the Cabinet was informed.

Besides, the Cabinet also accorded approval to Finance Division for laying the annual report of SECP for the year 2015-16 and that of Competition Commission of Pakistan for the year 2013 and 2014 in the parliament after publication in the Gazette of Pakistan.

National Electric Power Regulatory Authority's annual report for 2015-16 and state of industry report for 2016 was also presented before the Cabinet.

The prime minister directed the concerned ministry for a comprehensive presentation to the Cabinet on power generation, distribution & transmission, liabilities and recoveries and load management in the country.

The Cabinet also approved signing of agreement between Pakistan and Tanzania on abolition of visa for diplomatic and official passport holders.

Earlier this year, a draft of the Tribal Areas Rewaj Bill, 2017 was introduced in the National Assembly on May 15.