FATA Reforms Committee to submit final report soon, says Aziz

The commission to determine whether FATA should be merged into K-P as a PATA or be made into a separate province

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, who is also heading the Fata Reforms Committee, has said that the body would submit its final report to the federal government soon.

“The committee is in the final stages in its preparation of the report on the future status of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata),” he told The Express Tribune.

The five-member committee was formed by the prime minister on November 8, 2015 to determine whether Fata should be merged into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as a Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) or be made into a separate province of the country.



“The committee was supposed to finalise its recommendations much earlier but is constantly delaying its report due to unknown reasons,” said Ejaz Mohmand advocate, Central Chairman of the Fata lawyer’s forum. He told The Express Tribune that he expects the committee to finalise its report within one month.

Sartaj Aziz, in response to this objection, said the federal government had extended the time-frame of the committee for another two months owing to the difficulties faced in consultation with tribal elders and other stakeholders.

“We have visited all seven tribal agencies to meet the elected representatives of those areas including businessmen, tribal elders (Maliks), educated youth, religious leaders and members of the civil society to ascertain their point of view on the issue,” he said.



Aziz refused to answer a question on whether holding of local government elections in Fata came under discussion during the course of dialogues with the officials and notable people of Fata.

According to a member, the committee also held meetings with the notables of all Frontier Regions on May 2 in Peshawar.

“A delegation of lawyers including Fata Lawyers Forum was also among those who were consulted and exchanged their views with the committee,” the adviser to PM said.



However, Ejaz Mohmand said his forum had refused to meet the committee as it had no legal status and lacks genuine tribal representation.

“Not a single person from Fata has been included in the committee,” he said, adding, “For the tribal people it is a Lahori committee. At least tribal parliamentarians should have been included in the committee as its members.”

The former governor of K-P Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Minister for the States and Frontier Regions Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, PM’s adviser on National Security Lt-Gen Nasser Khan Janjua and federal minister Zahid Hamid were nominated by the prime minister as the four members of the committee.