ISLAMABAD Opposing the historic merger of then Federally Administrated Tribal Areas into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Jamiat Ulema-e Islam-Fazl Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that bill [31st constitutional amendment] had been passed without alleviating concerns of the people of FATA.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the JUI-F chief said: “No consultations were made with us pertaining to merger of [then] FATA into KP. The Prime Minister had assured us that [then] FATA would not be merged into KP. He (PM) had only informed us that jurisdiction of Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) and Peshawar High Court (PHC) would be extended.”
“Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) has been revoked from tribal areas without implementing new laws. People are seeking reply from public representatives”, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said. Now FATA would be without any mechanism for governance in the absence of FCR as there is not alternate system in place to attend the day to day matters of the residents of these areas.
“They came to know after 70 years that Quaid-e-Azam made a wrong decision”, he added. He said those who approved the FATA merger didn’t know what they have lost. “Such a decision will not benefit the country,” he added.
The 31st Constitutional Amendment 2018 for merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been passed by National Assembly on Thursday.
As many as 229 members voted in the favour of the bill while 11 opposed it. The bill was approved clause by clause.
With the passing of the bill, KP laws will be immediately enforceable in FATA and it would also get Rs100 billion under NFC award for next 10 years.