PESHAWAR: Lawmakers from the merged tribal districts and opposition benches staged a sit-in inside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday to protest the government’s failure to fulfil its commitments made with people of the erstwhile Fata ahead of their region’s merger with province in 2018.

The MPAs from tribal districts having affiliation with the opposition parties sat in front of the speaker’s dais to register their protest against what they called prejudiced and biased attitude of the provincial and federal governments towards the people of former Fata.

The opposition’s MPAs from settled districts joined the protest.

Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, who presided over the sitting, repeatedly requested them to end protest but they refused.

Complain promises made to region’s people ahead of merger unfulfilled

Awami National Party member Nisar Mohammad Khan, who initiated the sit-in, said the protest would continue until the government fulfilled its commitments.

“Certain commitments were made with the people of former Fata when 25th Constitutional Amendment was introduced in parliament in 2018 but regrettably, they were not fulfilled,” he said.

The lawmaker complained that MPAs from tribal districts were not given time to highlight the issues of their region in the assembly.

He said that provincial government had yet to give representation to the merged districts in the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC), whose main function was to determine their share in development funds.

Supporting the protesting MPAs, Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani said the opposition parties would bring their workers to Peshawar for demonstration in front of the Chief Minister’s House.

He asked the government to fulfil its commitments with tribal districts.

Mr Durrani said he discussed strategy with parliamentary leaders of other opposition parties and requested them to bring their workers to demonstrate for the rights of the people of the erstwhile Fata.

He said the provincial council of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl would meet in Peshawar on May 30 to discuss the future line of action for the purpose.

“The government claims that billions of rupees have been released for development work in former Fata but the situation on thegroundhasn’t changed,” he said.

The opposition leader insisted that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan didn’t know who was running the administrative affairs of the province.

Awami National Party parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak asked the government not to ignore tribal districts and fulfil its commitments, including the grant of three per cent share in the National Finance Commission Award to the erstwhile Fata.

He said the government had announced Rs100 billion development package for the region to be utilised on development work every year.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced on several occasions the restoration of 3G and 4G services in merged districts but the facility hasn’t been restored,” he said.

Mr Babak said the US was establishing a base in Waziristan, so the government should explain its position on it.

Special assistant to the chief minister on information Kamran Khan Bangash defended the government’s policies and initiatives in merged districts and for the first time in the history of former Fata, Rs36 billion was spent on development work last year.

He said the chief minister chaired the meeting of the task force twice a month to review progress on ex-Fata development schemes.

Mr Bangash said 702 village and neighbourhood councils had been set up in the merged districts, while doctors and teachers were being posted to facilities.

He said seven decades long deprivation of the people of the merged districts could not be addressed in two years and that it would take time to happen.

The chief minister’s aide said 29,000 personnel of Levies and Khasaddar forces had been integrated with the provincial police.

Local government minister Akbar Ayub Khan termed merged districts a ‘fragile zone’ and said some pockets had yet to be cleared.

He said provinces should give due share in their respective NFC Award to the merged districts for development.

The house admitted for detailed discussion an adjournment motion of Opposition Leader Akram Khan Durrani regarding irregularity in the allotment of commercial property in Bannu city.

Mr Durrani said the deputy commissioner of Bannu and tehsil municipal administrator had a tug-of-war over the sasta bazaar property allotment.

Local government minister Akbar Ayub Khan confirmed the acrimony between both officials and said the anti-corruption establishment was looking into the matter.

During question hour, environment minister Ishtiaq Urmur said the forest department had imposed Rs50 million fines for the illegal timber harvesting and movement during the last two years.

He said the department faced shortage of staff as it currently had 4,000 personnel.

The minister said the government had planned to recruit another 4,000 personnel and install CCTV cameras at forest checkposts all over the province.

Responding to a supplementary question, Mr Urmur said negotiations were under way with the local communities in tribal districts to categorise forests and that checkposts would be set up in parts of North and South Waziristan, Khyber and other areas.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2021