Islamabad — Government’s Fata Reforms Committee decided on Friday to install a transitional mechanism.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi directed the minister for law and justice to fast track legislative and administrative measures for mainstreaming of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
PM said while chairing a high-level meeting of the National Committee on the Implementation of the Fata Reforms that it was necessary, so that Fata’s people could have access to fundamental rights like other citizens of the country.
The committee noted with satisfaction the positive response in the parliament and the tribal areas over the Fata reforms package, which was approved by the cabinet on March 2nd.
The committee took many decisions to expedite the process of its implementation. The committee approved the fast-track recruitment of police and re-deployment of some of the Frontier Constabulary, after training, to perform police functions.
It was also decided to put in place an appropriate administrative mechanism and to create a position of chief operating officer during the transition period.
Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa briefed the committee on the successes achieved in establishing the writ of the state throughout the Fata and on the steps taken to strengthen security, border infrastructure and the development efforts during the last few years.
The prime minister in his remarks reiterated that the basic purpose of these reforms was to improve the living standard of the residents of the Fata who had suffered enormously due to a long war, insurgency and widespread displacement in the past three decades.
Other members of the committee who attended the meeting included Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Parvez Khattak, Minister for SAFRON Lt Gen (retired) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz and senior civil and military officials. Later in the evening, the prime minister was given briefing about the performance of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
