Imran to pressurise government for passage of Fata reforms bill

Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan on Thursday reiterated his party' demand for holding fresh elections, saying the only way to fill the political vacuum in the country is early elections. In a Twitter message, he also demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to complete the delimitation process as soon as possible, and said that now the Commission had no excuse after the passage of delimitation bill from both the Houses of the Parliament.
"The ECP is duty-bound to complete the delimitation process as soon as possible, preferably in three months," he added. He warned that PTI would not tolerate delay in election process for any lame excuse. Meanwhile, Khan also decided to increase pressure on the government in both Senate and National Assembly in order to get the FATA Reforms Bill passed as soon as possible, which has been pending before the Lower House for the last so many months.
Khan said that consistent delay in passing the FATA Reforms Bill under one pretext or another was not acceptable. He directed the parliamentary leaders of his party in National Assembly and Senate to pressure the government. PTI Deputy Secretary General Murad Saeed said some vested interests were creating trouble in the passage of the bill, as they were not ready to bring tribal people into the mainstream despite the fact that it was part of the National Action Plan (NAP).
He recalled that ruling PML-N had promised with FATA people that tribal areas would be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said there was no option but to merge FATA with KP as it was the demand of the tribal people. "After the approval of recommendations on FATA reforms by the cabinet, there is no point to delay it any further but there are some vested interests who do not want to merge FATA with KP, but people of FATA will foil their nefarious motives," he added.
On March 2, 2017 the federal government approved the recommendations of the FATA Reforms Committee including the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and repeal of Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). The process is expected to take five years to complete, concluding by 2022. But the bill is yet to be passed from the National Assembly because Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai - allied parties of ruling PML-N - are opposing the bill.