Senate Standing Committee of Ministry of States and Frontier Regions was informed on Thursday that the ministry was considering appointment of an additional political agent-judicial for Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata) to ensure speedy justice for people. Officials of the ministry informed the committee members that the suggestion has been under consideration for quite some time but no final decision on it has been made yet. "We will take a final decision on it following recommendations from the parliamentarians," the officials said.
A meeting of the committee was held under the chair of Senator Hilal-ur-Rehman in the Parliament House where he directed the ministry officials to come up with a speedy justice system for the Fata people. The committee members were also briefed by the ministry officials in detail about education and health conditions in the Fata. Officials informed the committee members that some 7,000 vacancies in both education and health departments are lying vacant that need to be filled at the earliest.
The committee members said that they would take up the issue with the finance ministry as well to take care of financial hurdles in the appointments in both education and health departments. There are total 982 health centres in Fata and around 58 officials including 11 doctors have been removed from their positions due to prolonged absence from their duties, the officials informed the committee members.
The chairman of the committee also constituted a sub-committee under chair of Senator Sitara Ayaz to look into education and health sectors of Fata. The committee members urged the ministry officials to devise some cogent policies to bring standard of education and health departments of the FATA at par with rest of the country.