ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Justice (Retd) Nasir-ul Mulk chaired a meeting on Monday to review progress on the implementation of reforms for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The PM emphasized to formulate a strategy for removing bottlenecks and making the FATA merger process seamless.
Late last month Pakistan passed legislation to merge restive tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and end a colonial-era arrangement Frontier Crimes Regulations.
The PM office said in a statement that the Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Azam Khan, made a detailed presentation on the implementation progress and pointed out various administrative, legal and financial issues that needed immediate attention to ensure smooth transition of the merger process after the passage of the 25th Constitutional Amendment.
The meeting was informed that draft plans for extension of judiciary, policing, prosecution and prisons service in the tribal districts have also been prepared.
Member Federal Board of Revenue briefed the meeting about the tax exemptions and other financial incentives that have been provided to the people of erstwhile FATA and provincially administered tribal areas for the next five years.
Secretary Finance also briefed the meeting about the financial allocations for the development of the region and for ensuring smooth implementation of the merger process.
“The merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a landmark development promising a positive impact on addressing the development lag and bringing a marked improvement in the lives of the people,” the prime minister said.
“He stressed the need to address the important administrative, legal and financial issues in this regard,” the PM’s office statement read.
The prime minister emphasized that the process of transition should be completed swiftly and must provide a sense of security to the people of the erstwhile tribal areas.
Caretaker PM chairs meeting to ensure swift, smooth FATA-KP merger process
Caretaker PM chairs meeting to ensure swift, smooth FATA-KP merger process
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
