ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has recommended the federal government to complete legislative work at the earliest for delimitation process of newly merged districts of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

An official of ECP on Tuesday told APP that all the arrangements were completed for delimitation process in erstwhile FATA but legal framework was required after having new status.

He said that ECP has asked the Federal government to extend and provide legal framework for delimitation process at the earliest to complete tribal areas delimitation.

He said that provincial government had divided seven tribal districts of the erstwhile FATA into 702 villages and neighborhood councils to introduce local body system there.

The erstwhile frontier regions (FRs), which have been merged with the adjacent districts of the province, have also been divided into villages and neighbourhood councils.

According to an official data, the erstwhile FR Kohat has been divided into 16 councils including 13 villages and three neighbourhood councils and FR Dera Ismail Khan into 12 councils, 11 villages and one neighbourhood council.

The erstwhile FR Peshawar has 11 village councils, FR Tank has eight village councils, FR Bannu has six and FR Lakki Marwat has five councils while none of these erstwhile frontier regions (FRs) have any neighbourhood council.

He said that according to the existing KP local government system, the minimum population of a village or neighbourhood council should be 2,000 while its maximum population is 10, 000.