PESHAWAR: Six members of the dissolved Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday moved Peshawar High Court for declaring as unconstitutional the recent formation of a steering committee by the federal government for overseeing its development funds for the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The ex-MPAs have requested the court to declare the relevant notification issued on January 3 by the planning commission, ministry of planning, development and special initiative, against the spirit of Article 129 and the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, through which former tribal areas were merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The former MPAs including Syed Ghazi Ghazan Jamal, Shaifiq Afridi, Anwarzeb, Ajmal Khan, Said Iqbal Mian and Naseerullah Khan, all belonging to tribal districts, filed a joint petition to seek declaration of the court that the executive authority of the province vested in the provincial government and could not be exercised by the federal government in respect of tribal districts.

They stated that the impugned notification brought contempt and ridicule to the office of the KP governor being made a member of the steering committee and then to work under a deputy chairman of the planning commission.

Petitioners seek execution of schemes in ex-Fata through provincial govt

The petitioners also requested the court to direct that the share of Fata as per the decision taken by the federal cabinet on March 2, 2017, should be given and spent only in the merged districts through the provincial government.

The petitioners have also sought interim relief, requesting the court to suspend the impugned notification till final disposal of the petition. The petition has been filed through a panel of lawyers including Ali Gohar Durrani, Zarak Arif Shah and Babar Khan Durrani.

The respondents in the petition are federal government through secretary cabinet division, planning commission through its secretary, the steering committee through its secretary, secretary finance division, National Finance Commission and National Economic Council through respective secretaries, KP government through its chief secretary and KP finance secretary.

The impugned notification provides that 80 per cent of the Accelerated Integrated Programme (AIP) funds will be channeled through the steering committee with the responsibility to identify development needs and recommend schemes in merged districts for execution by respective federal executing agency.

Early this month, the petitioners had filed another petition for declaring as illegal and unconstitutional the non-issuance of fresh National Finance Commission award after the merger of erstwhile Fata into the province.

They requested the court to declare that the people of merged districts were entitled to their due share under the NFC award, which was three per cent of the Divisible Pool.

In the present petition, they stated that in May 2018, the parliament passed 25th Amendment and then the provincial assembly gave its approval to the same, thereby merging erstwhile Fata into the province.

They said that the share of tribal districts as per NFC award was not yet materialised. They stated that out of nowhere the impugned notification was issued by the planning commission, whereby a steering committee was notified.

The petitioners said that the steering committee having nine members headed by deputy chairman of planning commission, had the KP governor as a member, who was to work under the deputy chairman, and for all intents and purposes had outdone 25th Amendment.

They contended that the notification had made the federal government through the steering committee an executive above executive within the province for execution of schemes which was wholly the domain of the provincial government for the people of merged districts.

The petitioners said that the formation of the steering committee was offensive to the principle of provincial autonomy, which was the cornerstone of the constitutional dispensation.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023