Raise in NA, PA seats of former Fata: Parliamentary body passes constitutional amendment bill

A parliamentary body on Tuesday passed with some amendments a constitutional amendment bill seeking increase in number of general seats of National Assembly and Provincial Assembly for erstwhile Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata) in order to ensure proper representation of the people of these areas.
Two parliamentarians from tribal districts including MNA Mohsin Dawar and Sajid Khan moved the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2019 (amendment in Articles 51 and 106) seeking to restore 12 National Assembly seats allocated for erstwhile Fata areas and increase in number of seats allocated for these areas in provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 16 to 24.
The National Assemble Committee on Law and Justice presided over by MNA Riaz Fatyana with the censuses of eight MNAs from tribal districts proposed a middle way out and recommended that the number of National Assembly seats will be nine while provincial assembly seats will be 20. The number of National Assembly seats for tribal areas district is currently 12 which were decreased to six after population census 2017. Similarly, the number of provincial assembly seats is 16 after population census.
The meeting also recommended that the election for general seats in erstwhile Fata should be held within six months or one year time. According to election schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), general election for provincial assembly seats in the erstwhile Fata will be held on July 2 which may be delayed from six months to one year after the approval of amendment bill from both houses of the Parliament.
The committee held voting on the bill. Nine members of the committee including members from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), MMAP and other parties supported the bill while four members from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opposed the bill due to expected delay in election.
Khawaja Saad Rafique of PML-N said, "The people of tribal regions have served as fuel for war on terror, a war that we fought for strangers." He said that he did not object to demand of parliamentarians of tribal districts but he thinks that the bill has been moved to delay election in Fata districts. Election schedule announced by the ECP should not be changed and his party will not support delay in election of tribal districts, he said, adding that this is a constitutional amendment and, therefore, it should not be done in haste.
PPP lawmaker Naveed Qamar said that there is no doubt that people of erstwhile Fata have given a lot of sacrifices for the country and suffered many hardships. This is a constitutional amendment and currently he does not have mandate of his party to support this bill; therefore, the committee should delay it for some time. Just like the people of erstwhile Fata, reservations over population census 2017 were also raised from other parties, he said.
Federal Minister for Law and Justice Muhammad Farogh Naseem said, "If we truly want to ensure proper representation of people of erstwhile Fata in the Parliament then the passage of this bill should not be delayed. We are supporting this bill just to give true representation to people of tribal districts and have no hidden agenda."
Minister for Religious Affairs and an MNA from tribal district, Noor-ul-Haq Qadri said that there is a perception that people of tribal districts did not get any political benefit from Fata merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because the number of their National Assembly seats was decreased from 12 to six as a result of population census. The parliamentarians are requesting to delay the decrease in number of National Assembly seats for tribal districts till next census to be held after 10 years, he said.
He said that the census done before the general election did not take into account temporarily displaced people. Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Babar Yaqoob said that he has placed this issue before the commission. The ECP has announced election schedule and under the Article 106, the ECP is bound to hold elections before July 6 in tribal districts. However, he said whenever new amendment will come before the commission, it will start preparations for election as per new amendment. So far the ECP has made preparations for holding election on 16 seats and it can make preparations for holding election on 24 seats within four months, he said.
MNA Dawar while presenting the bill said that under the Constitution, the State is responsible to protect the rights of all its citizens and give them true representation in all walks of life. To ensure proper representation of the areas of erstwhile Fata, it is necessary that the number of general seats of the National Assembly allocated for those areas should remain the same.
However, he said that number of seats allotted in the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for erstwhile Fata is also proposed to be increase to give adequate representation to the said areas. The current allocation of the above said general seat made on the basis of provisional results of the population census 2017 had not included temporarily displaced people in the population of the erstwhile FATA, he said.
Members and MNA including Atta Ullah, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Kishwar Zehra, Maleeka Ali Bokhari, Muhammad Sana Ullah Khan Masti Khel, Malik Muhammad Ehsan UllahTiwana, Sher Ali Arbab, Shunila Ruth, Syed Hussain Tariq, Nafeesa Shah, Aliya Kamran, Sajid Khan and Ali Wazir attended the meeting, besides senior officers from the Ministry of Law and Justice representatives of Nadra and representatives of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.