Tribal areas re-designated as districts, sub-divisions

Meeting chaired by Mulk told political agents and their assistants become DCs and ACs respectively

ISLAMABAD: Tribal agencies and frontier regions in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) have been re-designated as districts and sub-divisions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), a meeting for reviewing Fata reforms were briefed on Monday.

Subsequently, the posts of political agents and assistant political agents were also re-designated as deputy commissioners (DCs) and assistant commissioners (ACs).

The meeting, presided over by caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk, also discussed draft plans for extending the reach of the judiciary, police, prosecution and prisons services in these tribal districts.

Caretaker Law Minister Barrister Ali Zafar and other government officials attended the meeting.



The caretaker PM was informed that after the abolition of the Agency Development Fund, collection of all taxes, levies and ‘rahdaris’ had been stopped.

K-P Chief Secretary Azam Khan made a detailed presentation on the progress of implementation and pointed out various administrative, legal and financial issues that needed immediate attention for smooth transition after the passage of the 25th amendment, a statement issued by the PM Office said.

Secretary Finance Arif Ahmad Khan briefed the meeting about allocations for development.

Member Federal Board of Revenue (Inland Revenue Policy) Dr Muhammad Iqbal briefed the meeting about tax exemptions and other financial incentives provided to the people of the erstwhile Fata and Pata (Provincially Administered Tribal Areas) for the next five years.

Terming Fata’s merger with K-P a landmark development, the caretaker PM said it had the potential of addressing the development lag and significantly improving the lives of tribesmen.

Stressing upon the need for addressing crucial administrative, legal and financial issues, Mulk formed a committee to formulate a strategy for removing bottlenecks in the merger process.

The committee, formed under the caretaker law minister, would include the K-P chief secretary, the advocate general of the province, the home secretary, the additional chief secretary Fata and representatives of the finance, revenue and planning divisions.

“The process of transition should be completed swiftly and must provide a sense of security to the people of the erstwhile tribal areas,” Mulk said, according to PMO statement.

Backgrounder

The meeting was in line with a series of meetings held after landmark legislation for Fata’s merger with K-P was adopted by the National Assembly, Senate and K-P Assembly.

The pace of developments in this regard has been sluggish over the past few years. Over the years, public calls for Fata merger gained strength.

Not long ago, despite overwhelming public and political support favouring the merger, the former PML-N government appeared reluctant to proceed with the merger plan, mainly because of the opposition of some of its allies.

A series of consultative meetings between the government and the opposition were mainly organised by Fata Reforms Committee under Sartaj Aziz. These meetings ended without yielding any result.

The former PML-N government, however, finally decided to go ahead with the merger plan at the end of its tenure.

This development mainly occurred after the security establishment took a strong stance in favour of the merger plan.



On May 19, a meeting of the National Security Committee attended by top military commanders and civilian government officials under then PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi directed ministries concerned to work out constitutional, legal and administrative modalities for Fata’s merger with K-P in consultation with all parties in parliament.

The NSC also endorsed the provision of additional well-monitored development funds for Fata over the next 10 years, and decided that these funds would not be re-appropriated to any other area of the province.

On May 22, the Abbasi cabinet approved tabling the draft constitutional amendment before parliament for Fata merger.

The same day, all parliamentary leaders and representatives of all mainstream political parties assured Abbasi of their support to the amendment.

Interestingly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achakzai or anyone else from either the JUI-F or the PkMAP did not attend the meeting.

The bill on Fata’s merger with K-P had a smooth sailing in the National Assembly, Senate and K-P assembly before it was signed into law by President Mamnoon Hussain.