PESHAWAR: The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak said he supported merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the extension of in vogue regulations there.
The FATA reforms, he added should reflect the aspirations of the tribesmen adding that the process of merger should be completed before 2018 and the tribal agencies be given the status of districts.
He was talking to a representative delegation of all parties conference on FATA reforms at Chief Minister House here on Wednesday.
Senior Minister Inayatullah Khan, Minister Health Shahram Khan Tarakai, Advisor to Chief Minister for Information and higher education Mushtaq Ghani, President of FATA Siyas Itehad Nisar Mohammand, Iqbal Afridi, Latif Afridi, Mukhtar Bacha, Iqbal Afridi, Zar Noor Afridi, Zahir Shah Safi,Asad Afridi, Ijaz Mohmand Advocate, Abdur Raheem Advocate, Mustafa and Saveed Khan were present at the occasion.
The Chief Minister was briefed about the proposed FATA reforms of the federal government. The recommendations of the FATA reforms were discussed in detail.
The Chief Minister assured all out support to the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and asked the federal government to complete the process before 2018 in order to give full representation to the people of FATA in the Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The participants agreed to extend the constitution of 1973 to the whole of FATA and extension of jurisdiction of High Court and Supreme Court there.
Pervez Khattak expressed reservations on certain recommendations and the participants agreed to it.
The Chief Minister disagreed with the proposal to keep intact article 247 of the constitution and gradual merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
He said that article 247 should be abolished because it empowered the individual, therefore these powers should be exercised by the elected representative.
The participants suggested amendments in articles 247 and 246 in the backdrop of merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The participants also suggested to amend article 106 of the constitution to give enhanced representation to the people of FATA in the provincial Assembly.
The Chief Minister said that after the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the people of tribal areas would be the equal share holders in incentives and facilities of CPEC.
He said that the merger should take place before 2018 so that the local government system could be extended to the tribal areas and the whole of the unit should have an equal system at grass root level.
After the merger there should be uniform regulation, he added. He wanted dynamic and efficient local body system in the tribal areas through the same devolution of power as the province had it so that the tribals could find the resolution of their problems at local levels.
The Chief Minister said that after the merger there should be amendments in the constitution so that the tribal areas should have the same developmental strategy as evolved for the province.
Pervez Khattak said that the objectives behind the merger were to establish the writ of the government and bring about a change in the overall prosperity and development of the people and that was only possible if the merger took place with sincerity.
He assured all out support to the effort for the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak here Tuesday planted a Chinar plant in the lawn of Chief Minister House to formally mark tree plantation campaign in the province.
Chief Minister speaking on the occasion he informed that towards the end of August 2016, a total of 222.2 million plants and saplings would have been planted, adding the provincial government was doing all out efforts to achieve the target of Billion Tree plantation in the province.
He said as many as 13,700 units of private nurseries have been established and towards the end of this year 127,500 acres of land would be brought under plantation while seeds on 23,000 acres of land would be sown.
The CM said the Billion Tree Tsunami was a success story in the province that would enhance the forest growing areas from present 1.5 million acres of land that would show a sharp increase of 8.4 percent in the overall forest covered area in the province.
Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Environment, Ishtiaq Urmar, Secretary Environment and others attended the ceremony.
