Opposition lawmakers staged a walkout from the National
Assembly for the ninth consecutive session after a bill on the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) reforms was absent from the agenda
once again, DawnNews reported on Thursday.
On
Tuesday, after the opposition registered its protest over the
government's inability to table the Fata reforms bill, National Assembly
Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had assured parliamentarians that the bill would be
presented in the lower house on Wednesday.
Despite
the speaker's assurance, however, the bill was not presented in the
Assembly on Wednesday which sparked protests and a walkout by the
opposition.
Hours after Minister for States and Frontier Regions
(Safron) retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch 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), Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met the Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) jirga council members regarding the Fata reforms for the first time.
The
meeting between the premier and the JUI-F members did not produce any
fruitful results and a member of the council declared that the party's
reservations over the reforms remained.
However,
Barrister Zafarullah Khan, who is looking after the law ministry after
Zahid Hamid quit as law minister last month, told Dawn that the two parties were "near a consensus".
Come
Thursday, the legislation was missing from the agenda yet again,
prompting a strong protest from the opposition leaders who staged a
walkout from the Lower House for the ninth consecutive session.
On
Wednesday, PPP leader Naveed Qamar asserted that the opposition would
continue to stage protests and walkouts until the government agreed to
debate the Fata reforms bill in the assembly.
When asked if the government would table the bill in the Lower House, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Abbasi told DawnNews that the government would table the legislation in the next NA session.
Assembly proceedings had to be adjourned today for the eighth time due to a lack of quorum in the Lower House.
The
Fata reforms bill, that was part of the National Action Plan of 2015,
includes mainstreaming the tribal region by extending the Supreme
Court's jurisdiction to the area, repealing of the draconian Frontier
Crimes Regulations (FCR) of 1901, as well as its merger with Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa.
SAFRON Minister Baloch had on Dec 8 said that the government was planning to repeal the FCR within a week's time.
Fata
is still ruled under the British-made FCR of 1901, which violates the
fundamental rights of the tribal people. The law states that three basic
rights are not applicable to Fata residents: appeal, wakeel and daleel.