Govt decision to merge Fata with KP province likely next month

ISLAMABAD: After refusal of Sindh and KP for sparing resources for Fata and establishment of security fund from federal divisible pool (FDP), the government has decided to merge Fata with KP in consultation with its political allies and consensus based decision is expected till mid of next month.

This lingering controversy over spare of resources from the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) among the centre and provinces have also become major stumbling block in the way for evolving consensus on fresh National Finance Commission (NFC) award and it seems that the government will have to prepare next budget 2017-18 with interim NFC Award for another financial year. If the NFC related issues are resolved by evolving consensus within next one and half month period otherwise the existing NFC arrangement will be continued through interim presidential order for next budget.

Now the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will propose to KP’s government for making commitment at the forum of Council of Common Interest (CCI) to utilise one percent additional resources meant for the province on account of becoming major victim of war of terror towards development of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) after merging with the KP province.

Instead of separate province, the PML-N leadership has decided to support merger of Fata into KP after taking all its political allies into confidence especially JUI-F of Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman and nationalist parties. When contacted to Federal Minister for Finance and sought his comments, he said that the federal government wanted to move ahead for resolving Fata issue in consultation with all political allies and the center would provide resources for the uplifting of the area. “We are making efforts to move ahead on Fata reforms as early as possible,” he added.

However, the official sources said the provinces had flatly refused to spare resources out of the federal divisible pool as they considered it as unjustified move on the part of the center to deduct the resources from their share after which they would not be able to meet increased resource requirements.

However, the federal government argued that Fata was part of the country and lagging behind on development front so everyone must contribute for bringing them at par with other parts of the country.

It is now wish of PM Nawaz Sharif that to implement its idea for introducing reforms in Fata and bring development agenda at its forefront. So it was decided in principle that no one would be allowed to exploit this situation for political gains.

“Now PM desires to move ahead with Fata reforms till mid of next month,” said one top official and added that after conducting Zarb-e-Azb by the military there is dire need to undertake development. If this opportunity was again missed out then it could again become sanctuary for terrorist in months and years to come.

“The incumbent regime floated this idea to introduce the reforms in Fata so it is the ripe time to implement these reforms without wasting much time,” the sources concluded.