Army to stay on in FATA till 2023: K-P CM

Stated this may not be so only if federal government merges tribal areas with the province

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has warned that unless the federal government merges the tribal areas with the province and holds elections there, the army will stay there for five more years.

Addressing a news conference at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar on Monday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) reforms committee, constituted by the prime minister for its merger with K-P, had recommended that the region should be given under Peshawar’s control and that provincial assembly elections should be held there — especially during the upcoming general elections. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2018.