The federal cabinet that met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the recommendations on FATA reforms. Secretary SAFRON Arbab Shahzad briefed the cabinet on recommendations of Fata Reforms Committee.The cabinet gave go ahead to the merger of the tribal region with Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, the most contentious issue hindering the implementation of the FRC report.A committee headed by Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has formulated a set of recommendations for bringing the tribal areas into the national fold including the merger with KP.The Fata parliamentarians had threw their full weight behind the committee report and even demanded immediate merger to enable the tribesmen take part in 2018 general elections.A 10-year plan envisaged development of Fata; repeal of the FCR; establishment of high court and Supreme Court benches; merger with KP; recruitment of 20,000 locals in Levies to replace army troops.It is worth mentioning that the government committee has in its reforms package proposed a 3 percent of national resources for the development of Fata areas till it was merged with the KP province and if the package is held in abeyance on any pretext the tribal belt would continue to be deprived of additional financial resources to change their economic and infrastructure development for, any fund that is released through the present system would have no assurance it would be judiciously spent.Governor Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Iqbal Zafar Jhagra attended the cabinet meeting on special invitation.Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Ameer Maulana Fazlur Rehman rejected the decision of the federal cabinet on the Fata reforms saying that prime minister deceived them and he would protest against the decision.Maulana Fazlur Rehman was expressing these views in his statement issued. He said that JUI-F rejected the decision of the federal government for amalgamation of Fata in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. JUI-F chief said that he would protest on the occasion of the inauguration of the Tangi Dam saying that prime minister was included among those who had deceived them. He said that the decision of federal cabinet was based on ill-will.Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that as to how the government would give the right to the Kashmiris which could not talk about the interests of the tribal people saying that it was to keep in mind as to why United States (US) was providing facilitation on Fata reforms.Approval of FATA reforms from federal cabinet is good development and now the process of implementation of these reforms should be started on fast track basis. It seems JUI Chief Fazl-ur-Rehman and Mahmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party are opposing merger of FATA with Khyber Pukhtunkhwa for their vested political gains. Both hoped that they would be able to pressurise Nawaz Sharif at a time when he direly needs their support. According to analysts, mainstreaming of FATA is easy and faster as a part of KP than as a separate province. A number of issues still need to be resolved. We hope that sufficient will be uitlised for FATA’s development in order to make it equal to the other parts of the country. FATA reforms are the much awaited demands of the people of the region. It is good that the controversial FCR is going to be replaced and the Rawaj Act is being introduced for quick settlement of their disputes.
