ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) will be brought in mainstream in five years in consultation with all stakeholders as per recommendations of FATA Reforms Committee approved by the Federal Cabinet in Islamabad on Thursday.
The approval was accorded by the Federal Cabinet which met today under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
FATA Reforms package approved by the cabinet. A great day for FATA. After 70 years, PMLN government takes the… https://t.co/pkhgWCSUbm
— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) March 2, 2017
Later briefing the media in a Press Conference, the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that necessary constitutional amendments would be made to enable people of FATA to elect their representatives to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly for 2018 general elections.
Sartaj Aziz told that Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) would be repealed and replaced with new Rewaj System.
The adviser said that the recommendations also included the target date for repatriation of all Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) as April 30 this year while reconstruction activities would be completed by 2018.
Sartaj Aziz said that a high level committee of experts would be formed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra as its head to prioritize preparation of a 10 year socio-economic development plan for FATA by April 30, 2017.
Sartaj said that National Finance Commission (NFC) would be requested to consider making allocations of 3 percent of gross federal divisible pool on annual basis for implementation of the FATA Development Plan. He said that this would be in addition to existing annual Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of Rs21 billion.
The SAFRON Minister Abdul Qadir Baloch said that FATA Reforms were being introduced according to the wishes of tribal people. He said that the reforms would ensure equal rights to people of FATA.
Qadir Baloch said that 20,000 levies personnel would be deployed in FATA after reforms.
