ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly on Thursday passed a constitutional amendment bill allowing the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province.
This despite opposition from two government-allied parties: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) and the Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
“This issue needed a national consensus, and thank God we achieved it today,” Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the National Assembly after the passage of the bill.
The merger will greatly impact development in FATA, which borders restive Afghanistan, he said.
“This is the beginning of the process,” he added. “We have to win the trust of the people of FATA, and we can achieve it through infrastructure development in the area.”
Abbasi announced a tax exemption for FATA for the next five years, and promised a 100-billion-rupee ($864-million) special infrastructure development package.
“We need to build hospitals, schools and roads in FATA to bring it at par with other parts of the country,” he said.
The government required a two-thirds majority (228 votes) in the Lower House to pass the bill, and got the support of all opposition parties.
The bill will become law after it is passed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and by the KP Assembly.
The bill envisages the abolition of Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) — a special set of colonial laws that governs FATA — and representation in the KP Assembly.
The assembly will have an additional 21 seats from FATA “provided that elections to the aforesaid seats shall be held within one year after the general elections 2018.”
JUI-F legislator Naeema Kishwar said her party had asked Abbasi to hold a referendum in FATA. The merger “will not augur well for Pakistan” as it is fulfilling a “foreign agenda,” she added.
The government allocated 100 billion rupees for FATA in last year’s budget, but only 10 billion were released, she said.
“How can we trust the government that it will fulfil all its promises of development in the tribal area?” she asked.
PkMAP legislator Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan said the people of FATA want a separate province, not a merger with KP. “We will fight for our rights, as the government has betrayed us,” he added.
Pakistan's National Assembly passes bill to merge FATA with KPK
Pakistan's National Assembly passes bill to merge FATA with KPK
- Government supported by all opposition parties but opposed by two allies.
- The bill was passed despite opposition from two government-allied parties.
Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move
- Both countries said they are applying the same measures on American nationals as imposed on them
ABIDJAN: Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the US included both African countries on a no-entry list.
In statements issued separately by both countries’ foreign ministries and seen Wednesday by AFP, they said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens, after President Donald Trump expanded a travel ban to nearly 40 countries this month, based solely on nationality.
That list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.
Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans, while Mali said it was, “with immediate effect,” applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States.”
It voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation.”
The two sub-Saharan countries, both run by military juntas, are members of a confederation that also includes Niger.
Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided.
In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.
