PM Abbasi urges implementation of FATA Reforms

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reaffirmed on Wednesday the government’s commitment to include the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in national mainstream.

In a National Assembly session earlier today, Abbasi said all institutions were committed to implementing FATA Reforms and that the matter of elections for provincial, national assemblies in Fata would be finalised together with opposition parties.

The premier, announcing a series of decisions on the FATA Reforms, said that the local bodies election in the region will be held before October this year. The Agency Development Fund has also been abolished, he said.

Abbasi added that the peace and security situation in Fata was satisfactory and that the government would take all parliamentary leaders into confidence regarding the reforms.

The prime minister visitedNorth Waziristan Agency with Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday, where heinaugurated the newly-constructed Miranshah Market Complex and Ghulam Khan Trade Terminal as part of the Central Trade Corridor.

On the occasion, Abbasi also said these socioeconomic projects were just the beginning and many more such projects were in the pipeline for Fata, in addition to the ones which had been completed or were in progress across tribal areas.

He also said that mainstreaming of Fata was key to its long-term progress and prosperity, for which the government had been working in line with the aspirations of tribal people.

On April 13, the Senate approved a bill extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court to Fata.

The Supreme Court and High Court (Extension of Jurisdiction to Fata) Bill 2017, which was passed by the National Assembly in January, is one of the reforms paving the way for an eventual merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.