Fata reforms: Ministry moves summary to federal cabinet

Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) has moved a summary to the federal cabinet about Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) reforms, besides proposing the merger of tribal areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to be taken up in its next meeting.
Secretary SAFRON Muhammad Shehzad Arbab stated this while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions which met with Senator Hilal-ur-Rehman in the chair on FATA reforms issue. He said the FATA reforms committee headed by Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had prepared a report and presented it to Prime Minister on August 23, 2016.
He said that subsequent to detailed discussion, the report was presented to the National Security Committee, and later it was presented in the National Assembly and Senate. After having detailed discussion, the report was presented before the federal cabinet and the Prime Minister decided to hold wider consultations with all stakeholders to develop consensus, he added.
Arbab said that following the directives of Prime Minister, the committee held detailed discussion with all stakeholders including Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his team and also discussed their reservations. Later a summary was moved to the cabinet to decide it during the next meeting, he added. He further said that first priority would be given to the return of peace and rehabilitation and reconstruction. The committee also discussed about rehabilitation programme completion till Dec, adding that the reconstruction would be completed till 2018, he said, adding that so far 90 percent rehabilitation has been completed therefore the committee suggested in the summary moved to the federal to extend the rehabilitation programme till end of April this year.
He said the committee also suggested socio-economic development of the FATA which will be extended for a period of 10 years. The committee suggested that National Finance Commission (NFC) should be requested to provide three percent of the available resources from the divisible pool, which is Rs 90 billion, on annual basis for the 10 years long development programme, he added.
The secretary further said that the committee also made recommendation regarding legal reforms in FATA and quashing of FCR gradually, adding that a new Tribal Rawaj Act should be enacted. A draft has been prepared in consultation with the Cabinet Division and the committee has presented the draft to the federal cabinet, he said.
He said the committee had also recommended extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Court to the tribal areas. However, the secretary said that the system of the adjudication will be based on Jirga system and the presiding officer who will make judgment will be a judge instead of political agent. Arbab said the committee also made recommendations for capacity building of levies force and 20,000 more personnel will be recruited. Under the plan, levies will play the role of policing, he added.
Senator Hidayatullah asked Arbab to brief the committee about Rewaj Act in detail and make it public in order to educate public about it. He said the basic aim to do away with the FCR is to ensure provision of fundamental rights to the people of FATA, adding that the Rewaj Act must provide necessary fundamental human rights to the people of FATA.
Arbab said that he will brief the committee about Rawaj Act during the next meeting. He said there is nothing to hide it and he is ready to make Rawaj Act public.
Senators Taj Muhammad Afridi and Saleh Shah said the Parliament has not been taken into confidence and it is being bypassed in the entire process. They said the role of Parliament has been minimal in the entire process and the cabinet is playing the role which should have been ideally played by the parliamentarians, particularly from the FATA.
The committee also expressed concerns over the future of Article 247, while the mechanism governing NFC Award with respect to the FATA was discussed by the committee. It was noted that keeping in view the past experiences, an elaborate accountability mechanism needs to be put in place, adding the current proposal has completely ignored this aspect. Senators Taj Muhammad Afridi, Hadayatullah, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Ahmed Hassan, Khanzada Khan and Sitara Ayaz attended the meeting.