ISLAMABAD: The national implementation committee on FATA reforms on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to expedite the process of implementation of legal reforms in the tribal areas.
The committee, which met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and attended by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Minister for SAFRON Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister for Law Zahid Hamid, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, noted that a bill to extend the jurisdiction of high court and Supreme Court to FATA has already been tabled in the National Assembly.
He committee directed the law minister to expedite the passage of bill through both houses of parliament and also initiate other legal and administrative measures so that the normal judicial system can be extended to FATA as early as possible and its people can enjoy the same fundamental and other rights that are available to people in the rest of Pakistan. The committee also directed that all administrative actions to set up agency courts and to expand the capacity of various law enforcement agencies in FATA should be taken expeditiously in consultation with the superior judiciary.
The meeting noted that a high-level committee has already been set up to prepare a 10-year plan for the socio-economic development of FATA. In this context, it directed the finance minister to seek, as a matter of priority, the endorsement of the National Finance Commission (NFC) to allocate a share from the divisible pool for FATA for the next 10 years.
Taking note of different viewpoints on FATA reforms, the committee carried out an in-depth review of the issues raised and concluded that there was widespread support for the merger of FATA with KP. However, many legal and administrative actions will be required before this important reform can be given the practical shape.
The committee noted that the task of repatriation of temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) and their rehabilitation have been completed and required administrative, law enforcement and security personnel were being deployed besides legal reforms that have also been initiated. The committee decided to review progress of these actions at its future meetings.
The committee observed that FATA reforms involve four different dimensions: political mainstreaming, legal mainstreaming, economic mainstreaming and security mainstreaming. All were interdependent with each of these having its own administrative and financial implications and therefore have to be carefully planned and dovetailed. The committee noted that the efforts for reforms in the past had not been very successful because they did not adopt the holistic view of the process.
Published in Daily Times, October 18th 2017.
