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December 10 , 2017

Imran gives govt 48 hours to table Fata-KP merger bill

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has warned that the party will come on roads if the government did not table bill on the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within 48 hours.

He was addressing the PTI youth convention which called on the government to immediately start integration process of Fata with the KP in accordance with the wishes of the people of the tribal areas.

Wearing a traditional tribal turban, Imran Khan delivered speech at the Convention Centre here where a 10-point declaration was also adopted, which emphasised the federal government and the provinces to commit resources for Fata's 10-year development by allocating three percent of the federal divisible pool on annual basis so the tribal areas could be brought at par with the rest of the country.

“Only the KP government has conveyed its willingness to the federal government to deduct its share of funds for the purpose. The KP chief minister will lead the campaign for persuading the other three provinces and the federal government to agree to the 3 percent allocation.

Imran said the federal government should immediately start the process of allowing the people of Fata to elect their representatives to the KP Assembly in the general elections 2018. He said the government of KP has already expressed its commitment to accommodate the representatives of Fata in the provincial assembly.

The convention said the Frontier Crimes Regulation should be abolished and all the laws of Pakistan must be extended in a phase wise manner under a given time frame. It said the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court should be extended to Fata so that the people of Fata are able to enjoy the same rights enjoyed by their fellow citizens in other parts of the country.

The declaration emphasised that the local bodies elections should be held before the next general elections. The local government law of KP should be adopted to ensure uniformity of system. Permit system, whereby the poor are illegally taxed by the administration and is a major source of corruption, should be immediately done away with.

The mineral wealth of Fata, it said, should be explored and utilised for the welfare of the people of the Tribal Areas. The Fata Secretariat, which has become a source of corruption and exploitation of the people of the tribal areas, must be disbanded forthwith and its functions reverted to the government of KP as it existed before 2005. The government of KP would immediately constitute a task force under the chief secretary KP to coordinate with the federal government and prepare the province for Fata’s integration.

Imran said he had called it stupidity on the floor of the National Assembly to send troops to Waziristan. He said what happened in Fata after 9/11 was unprecedented. Imran regretted that the respective governments paid no attention to the tribal areas and as a result, the people of Fata lagged far behind the rest of Pakistan. He said while Pakistan deployed its forces in Fata, the United States attacked the region with drones. He said this resulted in a fight between the military and the tribals. People were killed in drone attacks, he noted, and added their families took revenge. “The people of tribal areas got sandwiched between Taliban and the Pakistan forces. They were put behind the bars and even their CNICs were blocked,” he lamented.

Imran claimed they had blocked the supply line of Nato after which no drone attacks took place. He also pointed out that al-Qaeda men also fled to Iran’s tribal areas but no such operation was conducted against them.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with PTI senior vice president Ali Zaidi, Imran Khan said his party and people of Sindh would collectively decide the fate of Asif Ali Zardari and his coterie during his visit to Karachi next week. "The Peoples Party's barbaric looting of Sindh is unacceptable and intolerable. The PTI will free Sindh from the clutches of Zardari and his corrupt lackeys," he asserted. "We brought Nawaz to the witness stand; now it's Zardari's turn," Imran said, adding the PTI will pursue this leader of the corrupt to rid Pakistan and Sindh of all corruption.

During the meeting, Imran was briefed on the fundamental problems faced by the people of Sindh, with special focus on Karachi. He said the people of the province do not have access to clean drinking water.

Meanwhile, in social media messages, the PTI chief said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has conveniently forgotten mentioning the Supreme Court restrictions and criticism of Orange Line project in the judgement -- especially the scathing critique on how the environment and heritage sites' preservation were ignored and how these must be taken into consideration.

“The question that arises is how a Rs200b project was undertaken without a proper feasibility study regarding impact on environment andhistoric sites? Simple answer is Sharifs have no concern for environment or history,” Imran said. “All the Sharifs are interested in are expensive showcase projects for election campaigns and for the fat commissions from these projects that they can whisk away into their overseas accounts,” he alleged.

Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk

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