ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ruling party and all major opposition factions in Parliament decided on Saturday to merge the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province from July 1, 2019.

The decision was taken in a high-level meeting in Islamabad chaired by the prime minister’s special legal assistant Barrister Zafarullah Khan, and attended by all key opposition figures.

“A comprehensive bill for the merger has been prepared and will be presented in the National Assembly next week for passage,” Sahibzada Tariqullah, a lawmaker with Jamat-e-Islami and a participant in the meeting, told Arab News on Sunday.

All major opposition parties assured the government of their support in Parliament for its passage, he said.

In the interim period, relevant ministries and departments will complete legal and administrative modalities for the merger, he added.

Elections for the provincial assembly and local government will be held in FATA within a year of its merger with KP, Tariqullah said.

A meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), Pakistan’s highest civil-military decision-making body, also endorsed the merger on Saturday.

“Weighing all the pros and cons in detail, the committee endorsed that FATA shall be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with the introduction of the administrative and judicial institutional structures and laws of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said an official communiqué released by the prime minister’s office. 

The NSC also endorsed the “provision of additional well-monitored development funds” for FATA during the next 10 years.

“After the restoration of peace in FATA, political parties now have a window of opportunity to introduce reforms and merge it with KP,” Zaigham Khan, a political and security analyst from the tribal area, told Arab News. “This will benefit Pakistan and the people of FATA.”