Islamabad: Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament on Thursday has passed a landmark constitutional amendment with two-third majority to bring the tribal region on a par with other developing areas of the country.
National Assembly has approved the much-awaited merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in Islamabad with a 229-1 majority vote.
The passage of the bill is termed as the culmination of two-year long legislative and consultative process to extend political, administrative and socio-economic reforms in the tribal areas which were gravely hit by militancy and terrorism during last decade.
A session of the Senate has been called on Friday to review the bill to give its assent before it is presented before President Mamnoon Hussain for passage into law.
Addressing the parliamentarians, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the constitutional amendment was jointly crafted with a consensus of the government and opposition members after two years of struggle by the committee.
“It [bill] is aimed at changing a 150-year-old system in the tribal areas” PM Abbasi proclaimed as he thanked the opposition benches for voting in favour of the “historic” bill.
A total of 229 parliamentarians voted for the bill while one opposed it. Those in favour of the bill included Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamat-e-Islami and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Opposition to the bill largely stemmed from the Jamiat Ulem-a-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party whose members staged a walkout from the session.
Opposition leader Imran Khan, whose party rules KP province, made a rare appearance in parliament to vote for the merger of Fata with K-P. Congratulating the parliament on coming together despite differences between the ruling and the opposition parties, Khan said the bill’s approval was a great victory for the country.
“There was a huge gap in the tribal areas which the enemy could have benefited from. The vacuum in Fata has now been filled,” said Imran. “The tribal people want immediate justice just like the system that we have in KP,” he said, adding that the demand for a separate province was “unreasonable”.
MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar said his party is supporting the bill “for the sake of political unity”.
With only eight days remaining in the tenure of the National Assembly, the ruling party tabled the reforms bill for the tribal areas to fulfil its promise to “take Fata reforms to its logical conclusion during the current tenure of assemblies.”
The bill was finally tabled by Law Minister Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk after months of wrangling with coalition partners and the opposition over its clauses.
In 2016, the KP assembly adopted a resolution in favour of merging FATA with KP with the aim of rehabilitating and reconstructing the infrastructure in tribal areas.
Key Amendments
The amendment effectively abolishes century-old repressive colonial-era law known as Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) imposed in tribal areas.
It offers Fata’s five million citizens access to fundamental rights under the constitution, which means they will be able to vote for representatives in the provincial and national assemblies.
The draft bill seeks to amend seven articles in the Constitution of Pakistan to allow implementation of proposed reforms including the Article 1 which describes Pakistan’s territory and mentions Fata as a separate entity along with four other provinces.
The bill also seeks to amend Articles 51 and 106, which specify the number of seats allocated to each of the provinces. The strength of the Senate will reduce from 104 to 96 members as Fata will no longer have separate representation, while the seats of National Assembly will reduce from 342 to 336.
The KP assembly will now have 145 seats, including 115 general, 26 reserved for women and four for minorities.
Fata will have 21 seats in the KP Assembly, including 16 general, four for women and one reserved for non-Muslims.
