ISLAMABAD: Deadlock over the implementation of the proposed
Fata reforms package still persists as the first direct meeting between
the government and a team of ally Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) on
Wednesday failed to make any headway on issues of planned merger of the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and
extension of the superior courts’ jurisdiction to the region.
Talking
to Dawn after attending more than two-hour-long meeting with a
government team headed by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a member
of the JUI-F’s supreme jirga council declared that there had been no
breakthrough in the talks and their reservations over the proposed Fata
reforms package were still there “as it is”.
The prime
minister was assisted in the talks by federal Minister for States and
Frontier regions (Safron) retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch, Interior
Minister Ahsan Iqbal, PM’s Special Assistant Barrister Zafarullah Khan
and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz. Mr Aziz headed the
committee that had formulated the Fata reforms recommendations earlier
this year.
The PM had met the jirga council members
hours after the Safron minister announced in parliament that the
government intended to introduce “Supreme Court and High Court
(Extension of Jurisdiction to Fata) Bill 2017 in the National Assembly
on Thursday (today).
Team led by PM Abbasi conducts negotiations with JUI-F supreme jirga council
However, according to sources in the government, it is
highly unlikely that the bill will be presented before the assembly
after the meeting with the jirga.
The five-point agenda
issued for Thursday’s session by the NA Secretariat — available on the
official website — has no mention of the bill in question.
Talking
to Dawn, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, who is looking after the law
ministry after Zahid Hamid quit as law minister last month, admitted
that they had failed to reach a consensus, but claimed that they were
“near a consensus”. He said the meeting was held in a very “cordial
atmosphere” and both sides listened to the arguments of each other with
an open mind.
Mr Khan said the jirga had given
counter-proposals that could be considered. Without elaborating, he said
some of their proposals were “very good”.
“There was no
100 per cent inflexibility from the other side,” he said, adding that
he had given the jirga members a briefing on the bill seeking extension
of the superior courts to Fata whereas they had also presented their
viewpoint over the issue of Fata’s merger with KP.
Responding
to a question, he said it was unlikely they would move the bill early
as they did not want to spoil the “good environment”.
Mr
Khan said the jirga believed that the extension of the Peshawar High
Court (PHC) would be a step towards the merger of Fata with KP, but they
had no objection over the extension of the Islamabad High Court to the
region.
He said it was a “bitter issue” and they should
not show any haste over it. “Had it been not a big issue, why it was not
resolved by the past governments, including the three military
regimes,” he added.
Call for referendum
The
sources said the jirga desired that a referendum should be held in the
tribal areas to know if the people wanted merger with KP or they wanted a
separate province.
On Tuesday, PM Abbasi and Army Chief
Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had met JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to
discuss the proposed merger.
The maulana and Pakhtunkhwa
Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai are the only two
stakeholders who continue to stonewall efforts to pass fresh legislation
to change the status of Fata.
Earlier in the day,
opposition members continued their boycott of the National Assembly to
protest the government’s refusal to table the Fata reforms bill.
Recalling
how Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had assured lawmakers a day earlier that the
draft bill might be laid before the house on Wednesday, Leader of the
Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah observed that it
was surprising to see no mention of the legislation in the day’s
agenda.
“We are being told that it will be introduced
tomorrow (Thursday). If it is introduced, the opposition will welcome it
and extend unanimous support [for its passage]. But until that happens,
we prefer not to sit in this empty house,” he said, gesturing to the
mostly-bare government benches.
Later, Safron Minister
Qadir Baloch, while responding to a calling attention notice moved by
Senator Shibli Faraz of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the
Senate, regretted that no past government had taken any step to end the
miseries of tribesmen, terming it “criminal negligence”.
He
said the administration in Fata was being run through Frontier Crimes
Regulation (FCR) and people were being forced to pay “cruel taxes”
without having the right of appeal to any court.
The
minister declared that the government was committed to implementing all
the recommendations presented by a special committee under Sartaj Aziz
in order to mainstream the tribal areas and a timeline for the
implementation of each of the recommendations had already been finalised
by another high-powered committee, led by the prime minister.
Responding
to criticism of the government for delaying the implementation of Fata
reforms only to appease two of its allies, Mr Baloch said the government
was still trying to convince its coalition partners.
“We
are not dragging our feet,” he said, adding that the PML-N government
would not let anyone take credit for this historical task, saying: “it
will be a feather in our cap”.
In March, the federal
cabinet approved a set of steps to be taken for the proposed merger of
Fata with KP, and a 10-year reform package to bring the tribal region on
a par with developing areas of the country.
In May, the
government convened a special session of the National Assembly for the
presentation of three bills, including a constitutional amendment
drafted in light of the recommendations of the Fata reforms committee.
But the government only tabled the amendment required to declare Fata a
part of KP, while the Rewaj Bill 2017, the draft law seeking the
extension of the jurisdiction of the PHC and the SC to Fata, was not
moved.
The bill was again placed on the agenda on Dec
11, but was withdrawn at the eleventh hour, prompting a protest from
opposition and Fata members, who announced a continuous boycott of the
assembly proceedings until the bill was tabled for passage.