Khattak welcomed the merger of Fata with K-P, but raised objections over the five-year plan approved by the federal cabinet. “There are anomalies in the plan which if not removed in time would give birth to problems in days to come,” he said addressing a presser at the Chief Minister’s House.
“We don’t reject the plan totally. We welcome the merger but we want the anomalies in the plan to be fixed so that they may not create problems in the future.”
He said Fata Secretariat should be dissolved immediately and the old system working before 2006 should be reinstated under which Fata cells would be made in each department of K-P’s Civil Secretariat.
Khattak claimed that their system has the capability to guarantee a smooth and effective merger of Fata with K-P.
He objected over the powers given to the governor of K-P for the next five years, which include financial powers, administrative powers and powers to shuffle bureaucracy in Fata.
“The lawmakers from Fata who would be elected to the K-P Assembly in 2018 general elections will have no powers. I wonder what the MPAs will do when they get elected,” Khattak said. “The federal government should sit with the K-P government along with representatives from Fata in a meeting to resolve this issue.”
The chief minister also objected over the powers of the federal government to post and transfer bureaucrats to FATA directly from the centre. “They are saying that they are bringing FATA into the mainstream but by mainstreaming they want to keep Fata with the centre rather than connecting it with K-P,” he said. “We have objections over the Levies as two types of systems—the police and Levies—cannot run in a province.”
“We want all the existing laws of the K-P to be extended and implemented in Fata like the law we have for education and health and the systems we have should be replicated over there rather than making new experiments,” Khattak said. “The K-P government has been consulted only once in the whole process.”
He supported the Jirga system and called for its incorporation in the dispute resolution system prevailing in K-P.
He announced that he would write a letter to the prime minister to make a committee comprising Fata representatives and provincial government to discuss the issues.
Khattak said they are going to Lahore and will meet the people of K-P living in Punjab. “We ask whether Pakhtuns are Pakistanis or not? If they are Pakistanis then why are they being registered?” he questioned raising objections over Pakhtuns’ registration in Punjab.
Peshawar Zalmi win
The chief minister congratulated the Peshawar Zalmi team and announced that they would hold an awards distribution ceremony for the team on Thursday. Khattak said that his government is working on 100 sports grounds in which 70 per cent work is complete and they are making a management authority for sports. “We would welcome Javed Afridi to lead the authority and utilise and manage the sports grounds taking sports to district level.”
Mohmand Agency
Mohmand tribal elder have announced to boycott from proposed provincial assembly elections in case federally administered areas are merged with Khyber-Pakhtunkwa.
The tribal elders demanded referendum in Fata before implementation of proposed approved reforms.
The various tribal elders of Mohmand agency, in their press conference, opposed the reforms implementation and demanded that the government announce referendum in the region. (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN MOHMAND)
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2017.
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