Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said he supports the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the extension of in vogue regulations there. The FATA reforms, he added, should reflect the aspirations of the tribesmen, adding that the process of merger should be completed before 2018 and the tribal agencies be given the status of districts after the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
He was talking to a representative delegation of all parties' conference on FATA reforms at Chief Minister House here on Tuesday. Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan, Minister Health Shahram Khan Tarakai, Advisor to Chief Minister on Information and higher education Mushtaq Ghani, President of FATA Siyas Itehad Nisar Mohammand, Iqbal Afridi, Latif Afridi, Mukhtar Bacha, Iqbal Afridi, Zar Noor Afridi, Zahir Shah Safi, Asad Afridi, Ijaz Mohmand Advocate, Abdur Raheem Advocate, Mustafa and Saveed Khan were present on the occasion. The Chief Minister was briefed about the proposed FATA reforms of the federal government. The recommendations of the FATA reforms were discussed in detail.
The Chief Minister assured all out support to the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and asked the federal government to complete the process before 2018 in order to give full representation to the people of FATA in the Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The participants agreed to extend the constitution of 1973 to the whole of FATA and extension of jurisdiction of High Court and Supreme Court there. Pervez Khattak expressed reservations on certain recommendations and the participants agreed to his reservations. The Chief Minister disagreed with the proposal to keep intact article 247 of the constitution and gradual merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He said that article 247 should be abolished because it empowered the individual, therefore these powers should be exercised by the elected and representative parliament.
The participants suggested amendments to Articles 247 and 246 in the backdrop of merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The participants also suggested amending Article 106 of the constitution to give enhanced representation to the people of FATA in the provincial Assembly.