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Thursday March 28, 2024

Cabinet decides to postpone Fata reforms process

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
December 16, 2016

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet meeting on Thursday discussed the Fata Reforms Committee report in detail and deferred it for a few days.

The government has also decided to engage all the political parties represented in parliament, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), on important and sensitive national issues for smooth sailing and orderly business of the administration. The policy to enter into clash with the opposition on any subject wouldn’t be followed since it could be counterproductive for the trends of faster pace of development and progress of the country.

The decision was taken in the course of informal political discussion of the federal cabinet that continued for three quarters of an hour on Thursday after disposing the major agenda item of the cabinet meeting. It was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who spent a hectic day regarding his official engagements in the day. The meeting of the federal cabinet took place in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The federal ministers and state ministers were present in the consultations while all government officials and non-members of the cabinet were asked to leave the cabinet room of the PMO.

Highly-placed sources told The News that the members of the federal cabinet also discussed the return of the PTI in the National Assembly in the wake of its poor performance in the Supreme Court regarding its petition on the Panama Papers.

Federal ministers Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Zahid Hamid, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Senator Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal and Special Assistant to the PM for Political Affairs Dr Syed Asif Saeed Kirmani took part in the discussion. The cabinet members also discussed the rumpus created by the PTI members in the National Assembly a day earlier, the sources said.

Earlier, in the cabinet regular meeting, the government decided to hold further consultations on FATA reforms package. Later, briefing the media persons along with Minister of State for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb, Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Abdul Qadir Baloch said the FATA Reforms Committee headed by Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will contact Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) to address their concerns on the reforms package.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appreciated the FATA Reforms Committee for formulating a comprehensive package for the tribal people. He, however, said that since it is an important initiative, therefore, all the relevant stakeholders will be taken on board before the finalisation of the report. 

Abdul Qadir Baloch said the reforms package envisages a phased merger of Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said all the Fata parliamentarians as well as majority of people in the tribal areas support the idea of merger.

He said the package also proposes a 10-year development plan for Fata in order to bring these areas at par with KP. He said funds for the development plan are proposed to be arranged from the federal divisible pool. He said as the matter will affect the provinces, therefore, it will be discussed with the provinces in the upcoming meeting of Council of Common Interests. 

The minister said that the reforms package was prepared after all inclusive talks with different segments of tribal people. For this purpose, he said, the committee held 16 jirgas. He said though in principle the JUI-F and PkMAP are not opposed to the package but they have certain reservations which will be removed through talks.

Abdul Qadir Baloch said the tribal people are patriotic Pakistanis and they deserve the rights enjoyed by any other common Pakistanis.  In her remarks, Marriyum Aurangzeb said Fata reforms have been topic of discussion in the past also but nobody gave it the final shape. She said credit goes to the present government that it has reached the stage to give final shape to the recommendations after completing the consultation process. She said it is a defining moment in the lives of tribal people and the day is not far when they will see implementation of the reforms package.

The sources said that the discussion on Fata reforms was prolonged and the federal cabinet couldn’t take up other items on the agenda for the day. They have been deferred for next sitting of the cabinet.