PM to take MNAs into loop on Fata reforms

Meeting with parliamentary leaders expected in coming days

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is expected to take the National Assembly members from different political parties into confidence on the proposed reforms in the Federally-Administered Tribal Area (Fata).

The Prime Minister on Friday agreed to form a four-member committee on the Fata reforms issue in a meeting with parliamentary leaders of opposition parties in the Senate. The committee comprised two senators from the government and two from the opposition side.

The main purpose of the formation of the committee was to deal with the modalities about a bill stuck in the Senate about delimitation of constituencies in accordance with the provisional results of the latest census. However, its scope has also extended to the proposed Fata reforms.



The composition of the committee raised eyebrows because the issue lingers on in the National Assembly, where the government backtracked on its commitment to table the Fata reforms bill, yet no MNA was taken on the panel.

Political sources say several MNAs, including those from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are not happy with, what they feel, being sidelined on a crucial matter, which, at present, has created a deadlock in the lower house. “This is strange,” a PML-N MNA said of the all-senators committee.

“Our government has already faced mega embarrassment over backtracking on Fata reforms legislation. And now, ignoring the elected representatives [from NA] in the committee is simply adding fuel to fire,” he said. “It’s creating resentment in the lower house not only among parliamentary parties but also within the ruling camp,” the MNA added.

According to a source, the ruling party MNAs feel that the Prime Minister Abbasi did not play his role effectively in dealing with the issue. “As leader of the house, he should have made sure that the National Assembly gets sufficient representation in the committee but he did not” the source added.

A politician close to the prime minister said that after sensing internal backlash, Abbasi has decided to hold meetings, expectedly in the coming days, with the PML-N MNAs and those of other parties to take them into confidence.

Since beginning of this week, the opposition has been walking out of the National Assembly sessions in protest against not moving the Fata reforms bill in the house. To pacify the angry opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shaikh Aftab announced that Abbasi would meet the parliamentary party leaders in the National Assembly on Friday to discuss the delay in Fata reforms bill.

However, the prime minister then decided to invite the parliamentary leaders in the Senate in Friday’s meeting to seek opposition’s support for constituencies’ delimitation bill. The meeting agreed to move the constitutional bill, already passed by the National Assembly, in the Senate on Tuesday.

The meeting also agreed to form a committee to monitor progress on the proposed legislation on Fata reforms and the audit of the census blocks in 30 days based on five per cent random population samples.



The committee comprises senators Mushahidullah Khan and Hasil Bazenjo from the government side and Mushahid Hussain and Taj Haider from the opposition.

Leader of the House in the Senate and PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq denied that the issue of Fata reforms had landed in cold storage with the formation of a committee.

“The committee comprises of credible members and the prime minister himself has taken responsibility to ensure the implementation of committee’s recommendations,” he told The Express Tribune on Friday.

When asked why there was no MNA on the committee, he said “The committee members belong to political parties that also have representation in the National Assembly. The prime minister is the leader of the house in National Assembly and he would also do his best to take the lower house into confidence on the matter.”