PESHAWAR: A former lawmaker has moved the Peshawar High Court seeking an advice for the Senate to consider a constitutional amendment bill passed by the National Assembly in 2019 for increasing the number of seats related to the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas in parliament and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Shah Jee Gul, an ex-MNA from the erstwhile Khyber agency filed a petition along with vice-chairman of the party Malik Habib Noor with the court seeking multiple reliefs related to an increase in the number of ex-Fata seats in the Senate, National Assembly and KP Assembly.

They requested the court to advise the Senate to perform its constitutional obligation by considering the Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, which was passed by the National Assembly in May 2019.

The petitioners sought orders for the federal government and Election Commission of Pakistan to honour commitments made with the ex-Fata’s parliamentarians prior to the enactment of the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, through which the tribal areas were merged with KP regarding the number of their seats in parliament and KP Assembly.

Bill on matter already passed by NA in May 2019

The respondents in the petition are the president of Pakistan through his principal secretary, Senate through its chairman, National Assembly through its speaker, ECP through the chief election commissioner, and KP government.

The petitioners said prior to the 25th Constitutional Amendment, the number of seats for Fata in the NA was 12.

They claimed that in the process of talks for the KP-Fata merger before the said amendment, it was agreed that until next census, the 12 seats in the NA would remain intact and under every NA seat two seats of provincial assembly and six reserved seats for women and one of minority would be created for Fata in the KP Assembly.

The petitioners claimed that talks were carried out with all the NA members representing Fata, wherein petitioner Shah Jee Gul was also part of the dialogue.

The petitioners said on the government’s assurance, all parties had agreed to the said formula.

They said after the merger of Fata with KP, the delimitation of constituencies was carried out in the merged tribal districts in such a circumstances when after the Zarb-i-Azb military operation, the inhabitants of those areas had migrated and spread across the country.

The petitioners claimed that only in North Waziristan tribal area, around one million residents had left as IDPs.

They pointed out that the ECP had issued an order stating that after merger of Fata with KP, the number of NA seats from those areas was reduced from 12 to six on the basis of the 2017 census.

The petitioners said on resistance from the leadership of merged tribal areas, the 26th Amendment Bill was passed by the NA unanimously and was referred to the Senate but the bill had ‘practically been blocked to kill it forever’.

They claimed that the government had made commitment that the merged tribal areas would retain 12 seats in the NA, eight seats in the Senate and 31 seats in the KP Assembly, but the commitment was not honoured.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2021