Fata reforms: JUI-F backed govt despite differences, says Fazl

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday said in the National Assembly that his party supported the government on the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) reforms despite having difference of opinion and it was now the government's turn to fulfill the promises it made with JUI-F.

Except from the JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his party members, all the parliamentarians in the National Assembly supported the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as part of the Fata reforms.

Maulana Fazlur Rehmantermed the plan an international agenda. “It is not justified both democratically and morally to impose the decision on the people of Fata,” he said adding the government was raising the same issues which had already been decided.

“But now the government should think as to what it has been doing with the country and its people,” Maulana Fazl said, adding the government should not take any undue advantage of their cooperation with it.

He said that his party would strongly oppose any move inside or outside parliament if any attempt in the form of a bill was made for the merger of Fata with KP province. Responding to objections of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the minister for Safron said the government was not making any changes regarding planned polls in Fata in 2018 general elections saying that local bodies’ polls would be held in October this year.

He noted that all the parties, except JUI-F, were in favour of merger of Fata with the KP province. Aftab Sherpao said there was no pressure on his party to support the merger of Fata with the KP province. He said that majority of tribal people were supporting the move.

Sahibzada Tariqullah of JI said that Jamaat for a long time had been strongly supporting the merger of tribal areas with the KP province. He called upon Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achakzai to put behind all reservations to support the merger.

Winding up the debate on cut motions related to his ministry, Khurrum Dastgir, Minister for Foreign Affairs, highlighted the achievements of the present government on the foreign policy front, saying that Pakistan was consistently engaged with Afghanistan to remove the misunderstandings and improve the bilateral relations.

He said the biggest achievement was that economic relations with Pakistan’s time-tested friend China had deepened as a result of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor project. He said that relations with the Central Asian States had further improved. He said projects like CASA-1000 and TAPI would connect Pakistan with these countries.

Minister for Power Awais Leghari said that electricity is being restored to the system after certain power plants tripped off in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said an inquiry will also be conducted to ascertain the facts of the blackout.

The House has passed 33 demands for grants relating to different ministries for the next fiscal year. The members from Pakistan People’s Party, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami withdrew their cut motions on these demands of grants while those moved by the MQM were rejected by the House. He said that there are plans to add 50,000MW electricity to the system by 2025. About the power outages in Karachi, the minister said the situation has improved there following the intervention of the prime minister.

Sheikh Aftab Ahmad said the federal government also introduced reforms in the education sector under which schools in the federal capital were equipped with modern facilities. He was confident that exports will grow by 15 to 20 percent during the next two months. The finance minister said the government has also given an unprecedented tax relief to the salaried class. He said the number of tax filers will also increase as a result of tax reforms package recently announced by the government.