An important session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will be held on Sunday (today) to deliberate upon the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. KP Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has convened the meeting upon the request of the provincial government. The session will commence at the Assembly Hall at 2pm. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has made contacts with the opposition parties for support for the bill envisaging merger of Fata with KP.
The opposition parties including the Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Qaumi Watan Party and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have assured their full support to the PTI in smooth passage of the bill. The KP Assembly has a total of 124 seats and two-third (84) votes are required for passage of the constitutional amendment bill, while the PTI has only 42 members in the house.
A senior official in the Assembly secretariat told this scribe that the decision had been taken at the top level to summon a session on Sunday to pass the bill. "The House is likely to take single item on its agenda that is the Fata Reforms Bill, 2018," said the official. After the passage of the bill, the Assembly will complete its constitutional tenure of five years on May 28 and will stand dissolved automatically.
On the other hand, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has announced to encircle the provincial assembly building and stage sit-in against the Fata-KP merger. The JUI-F has launched a protest movement since the approval of the bill by the National Assembly and then by the Senate. The party has reportedly completed arrangements for staging a massive protest outside the Assembly. The JUI-F members had also staged walk out from the Senate and National Assembly when the 31st amendment bill was presented there.
The JUI-F strongly opposes the merger of Fata with KP and argues that a referendum should be held in the tribal areas to decide its future. It is important to mention here that tabling the Constitution (Thirty-First Amendment) Bill in the KP Assembly is a constitutional requirement. As per Article 239(4) of the Constitution, the President cannot assent a constitutional amendment bill which affects geographical boundaries of a province without approval by the assembly of that province. Article 239(4) of the Constitution reads, "A bill to amend the Constitution which would have the effect of altering the limits of a province shall not be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by the provincial assembly of that province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership."
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