Bill on abolishing draconian FCR law to be tabled in NA on Dec 11

SAFRON minister says FATA merger with K-P will be announced in two years

ISLAMABAD: Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Abdul Qadir Baloch on Friday said preparations for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) merger were going on fast track, and “it would take a year or two to make a final announcement [to this effect]”.

“Merger is not possible without complete preparation; however, the government is trying hard to complete the preparation and announce the merger during its tenure because it had worked hard on the process so it wanted to take credit of this historical decision,” the minister told a press conference.

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Sartaj Aziz was also present on the occasion.

Baloch said at present there were no administrative, financial or political hurdles in the way of the merger and added that the government was implementing all recommendations made by the Fata Reforms Committee in January 2017 in toto.

The minister said the government was committed to abolishing the black law of Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) of Fata on priority which denied the residents the right to appeal in any court for change in conviction, the right to legal representation and the right to present reasoned evidence.

Tribesmen stage rally in Islamabad seeking abolition of FCR

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Sartaj Aziz said the government was presenting a bill in this regard in the National Assembly on December 11 which was likely to be approved by the National Assembly and then it would be finally approved by the Senate later next week.

Aziz said in order to mainstream Fata economically, a committee was formed which had almost completed its work and added it would present its report before the National Economic Council by the end of current month.

He said three per cent of the federal divisible pool would be set aside for Fata for next week which amounted to around Rs100 billion per year.

The deputy chairman said this allocation would be spent on various development projects in health, education, water, energy and other projects for socioeconomic development of the people of the area.

Aziz informed the media that the government had also planned to expand Levies force which, according to the plan, would be given the status of police at a later stage.

Federal cabinet approves FATA's merger with K-P, repeal of FCR

He said the process of recruiting additional 20,000 personnel in the Levies force would be finalised within 2-3 months and the recruitment process was being conducted under the Frontier Corps.

The Safron minister said the Rahdari system in Fata was also being abolished from January 1, 2018. He said under the system heavy taxes were imposed on any commodity being transported from other parts of the country to Fata.

He said an Advisory Council had been formed comprising members of Fata in the National Assembly and the Senate and added the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor would be bound to implement the advice of the committee.

Moreover, he added from today Additional Chief Secretary of Fata had been assigned the role of Fata Chief Operating Officer to control the issues of the area.

He said in the health and education sectors of Fata, there were 2,293 vacant posts out of which 1,440 posts had been sanctioned while the remaining would be sanctioned within 15 days.

The minister said the government was not delaying any project as it had sufficient funds of Rs80 billion for the current fiscal year.