Chairman Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman Wednesday said that a referendum should be held in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to know the opinion of the people either they want a merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or a separate province. While speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, he claimed, "The opposition parties had brought their activists and workers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for protest in Islamabad to pressurize the government to succumb to their demands on FATA's merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There was no representation from any FATA tribe or ordinary tribesmen in the protest."
He asked the opposition parties to come to the 'Youth Convention' in Peshawar to be held after two days that will be attended by the people of FATA. He said that there is no dispute on the merger of FATA with KP or a separate province, but that they only demand that the people of FATA be given the chance to decide about their future. "The government should not take this decision in haste or succumb to any pressure," Fazlur Rehman said, adding that the decision regarding FATA should be taken in a step-by-step manner.
"They (the people of FATA) should be asked by holding a referendum in the same way as the UK government sought an opinion from their people whether they wanted to stay in the European Union or not," he said. He said that the debate on the matter should be extended and the people of FATA should be given the right to express their opinion through referendum. "Every political party wants welfare of the tribesmen but at the same time every political party has a different approach in doing so," he said.
He said that the 'Riwaj Act' was presented in the House for extending jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the High Court to the FATA, adding that only the JUI-F had opposed it. He said that now everyone is saying that the Act is not appropriate because there are no lower courts. He further said that according to the report of Parliamentary Committee on FATA Reforms, there is a need of Rs 90 billion for the development of FATA per year and proposed that for this purpose, every province should give three percent share from the NFC Award. He said that in such a situation there is no hurry to merge the FATA and asserted for implementation on the decision in phases. He said that the committee has recommended 10 years for development and merger of FATA with KP.
Fazlur Rehman said, "Our whole House has committed collectively a sin by bringing a change in the law regarding affidavit for nomination paper about Khatm-e-Nabuwat (Finality of Prophethood)." This issue could not be highlighted due to massive protest of PTI workers and pandemonium situation in the House during the passage of "The Election Bill, 2017." He said that an investigation must be conducted to know who is behind this move to change the law.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi of PTI said that the people of FATA lodged a protest and PPP, PTI, Awami National Party (ANP) and even PML-N government agreed to merge the FATA with KP. But only the government's ally JUI-F and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) have reservations in this regard, he said. The implementation on the merger of FATA with KP is being delayed only for this reason, he added.
Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan of PkMAP said that it is the issue of FATA people and they should be given right to decide their future through referendum. Later, Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi gave floor to PkMAP Chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, but the members of PTI stood up and sought the floor to speak. They started making noise to create pandemonium in the House.
On this occasion, Achakzai said, "Mr. Speaker, you have given me the floor. If, I could not speak then they should not be allowed to speak. Mr. Speaker you should prorogue the House." In this situation, the deputy speaker prorogued the House.
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