Govt puts off tabling Fata Reforms Bill in NA till next week

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to put off production of bill regarding reforms in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and constitutional amendment for delimitations of the constituencies on the basis of provisional notification of the census till next week before the National Assembly and Senate respectively.

In the meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has entrusted the task of establishing contact with JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai to Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) ® General Abdul Qadir Baloch for consultation with them on the question of imbroglio regarding the Fata Reforms Bill. The two are opposing the bill in its present shape.

The minister has reportedly spoken to the Fazlur Rehman for seeking his views on Thursday and it is likely that they will again have meeting as the minister will report about the developments to Prime Minister Abbasi today (Friday).

In another development the government has decided to skip the Fata Reforms Bill for discussion in today’s breakfast meeting of Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi with the parliamentary leaders in his 222-Chamber of the Parliament House.

The prime minister is returning Islamabad in the wee hours of the day from London after having important meeting with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif as he has already left for home.

According to Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, 17 leaders from the Upper House of the Parliament (Senate) have been invited for today’s prime minister’s breakfast for deliberations on the constitutional amendment bill. They are: Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq (Leader of the House), Mushahidullah Khan (PML-N), Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan Chaudhry (Leader of the Opposition), Taj Haider (PPP), Ms. Nasreen Jalil (MQM), Azam Khan Swati (PTI), Ilyas Bilour (ANP), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri (Deputy Chairman), Maulana Ataur Rehman (JUI-F), Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q), Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo (NP), Usman Khan Kakar (PkMAP), Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini (BNP-M), Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah (PML-F), Sirajul Haq (JI), Mir Israrullah Zehri (BNP-Awami), Mohsin Khan Leghari (Ind), Sajjad Hussain Turi (Fata) and Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.