Fata Reforms Committee: recommendations challenged by 5 Maliks

Challenging the legality of recommendations of Fata Reforms Committee in the Supreme Court on Friday, the petitioners turned down the impression that most of the tribal people are in support of merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The legality of the recommendations of Fata Reforms Committee has been challenged in the apex court on grounds that constitutional provisions bar the Prime Minister from taking decision on Fata.
Filing a constitutional petition under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution on behalf of five Maliks (elders) of various tribal agencies, Dr Muhammad Ali Saif made the Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Cabinet Division, President of Pakistan through Secretary Aiwan-e-Sadar, Prime Minister through Principal Secretary, Minister of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) through Secretary SAFRON and Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Peshawar as respondents.
Malik Waris Khan Afridi of Khyber Agency, Malik Khan Marjan of North Waziristan Agency, Malik Attaullah of South Waziristan Agency, Malik Bahadur Shah of Bajaur Agency and Malik Baz Gul of Darra Adam Khel, FR Kohat, are the petitioners in the matter. In November 2015, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif set up a Committee on FATA Reforms to propose a concrete way forward for the political mainstreaming of tribal areas after consulting all stakeholders.
Being chairman of a four-member Committee on Fata Reforms, Sartaj Aziz filed recommendations of the Committee on FATA Reforms to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on August 08, 2016, saying the committee had visited seven Agencies and held detailed discussions with tribal Maliks, elders, representatives of all political parties and other members of the civil society on merger of Fata with KP within five years. It is important to mention here that the government on March 02, 2017 approved the amended report of FATA Reforms Committee seeking mainstreaming of tribal areas in five years.
Challenging the Report of the Committee on Fata Reforms 2016, the petitioners submitted that the impugned notification of the constitution of Fata Reforms Committee issued by the Prime Minister is illegal and thereby void as per Article 247. "As a consequence thereof, the Fata Reforms Committee constituted by virtue of the said notification is also illegal and has no legal and constitutional mandate to undertake reforms process in Fata," the petitioners submitted.
The petitioners alleged that the constitution of the Fata Reforms Committee, holding of consultation meetings with people in FATA, preparation of a report by the committee and recommendations are mere an eyewash to circumvent the mandatory requirement of holding of a tribal Jirga (assembly) as provided in Article 247 (6).
"It amounts to a futile attempt to portray the so-called meetings with stakeholders as an exercise to seek opinion of public in tribal areas in order to satisfy rather circumvent a mandatory constitutional requirement and to present its findings as an expression of the real and genuine wishes of tribesmen," the petitioners claimed.
The petitioners submitted: "Assertion that the majority of public in tribal areas is in support of merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is absolutely baseless and false."
The petitioners claimed that speakers whose names have been mentioned in the FATA Reforms Report and wherein an impression has been given on their behalf that they had expressed support for merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have denied these claims.
The petitioners also attached affidavits of as many as 100 eminent persons from all the seven agencies of Fata with the petition. The petitioners urged the Supreme Court to issue directives to the concerned authorities to constitute a new committee for proposing reforms in Fata by the order of the President of Pakistan in accordance with the Article 247 of the Constitution with a reasonable representation from Fata.