KP Assembly meets today to pass Fata merger bill

PESHAWAR: An emergency meeting of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is being held today to pass the bill for merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It will also be the last session of the assembly before the expiry of its five-year term on May 28.

Though the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was reluctant to hold the last session and had earlier postponed it four times because of the fear of no-trust against Speaker Asad Qaiser, the session was finally called after withdrawal of the no-confidence motion.

The no-trust resolution had been moved by Ziaullah Afridi, a former provincial minister who was expelled by the PTI after his arrest by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on corruption charges and later joined Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). He withdrew his motion on the directives of party high command to pave the way for the passage of the bill for merger of Fata with KP province.

The National Assembly and Senate have already adopted the merger bill and now the provincial assembly’s approval is required.

All the political parties except JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) of Mehmood Khan Achakzai are in favour of the merger.

The opposition parties including PPP, Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) would support the merger bill in the KP assembly. However, the JUI-F has announced that it would not only oppose the bill but also besiege the assembly.

Earlier, certain opposition lawmakers had also warned of moving no-confidence resolution against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, but it didn’t materialize. Only the no-trust against the Speaker was filed and it too has now been withdrawn. However, the worried PTI government avoided holding the assembly session to foil the no-trust move against the Speaker as it had lost majority in the House after it had expelled 20 PTI lawmakers for selling their votes in the Senate polls in March. The election for the Deputy Speaker on the seat that fell vacant after the election of Dr Mehr Taj Roghani as Senator also couldn’t take place when the assembly couldn’t hold its last session.

However, the unity among the political parties on the Fata merger bill despite their acute differences on other issues provided an opportunity to the PTI government to convene the farewell session of the assembly.