The federal cabinet Thursday met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif with an agenda which included Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) reforms.
During the meeting several proposals were approved to integrate FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within a time span of five years, sources said.
It was also decided in the meeting that the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) will be repealed after a constitutional amendment.
Sources added that a period of 10 years will be required to make developments in FATA. In order to clear FATA of the Army 20,000 locals will be included in the Levies Forces, it was recommended.
While considering the additional allocation of funds for FATA, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif stressed that all parts of Pakistan have equal rights on the resources of the country.
"Pakistan belongs to every Pakistani. Development of FATA is the responsibility of the entire nation and country,” the Prime Minister said.
Secretary SAFRON Arbab Shahzad briefed the cabinet on recommendations of FATA Reforms Committee while Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs also briefed the meeting.
Major political parties and Fata parliamentarians had announced a protest outside the Parliament on March 12 against the delay in approval of the committee's report.
The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) had also staged a sit-in outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar on Feb 26. The protest was called off after Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra had assured that the cabinet would approve the committee's report before March 12.
Besides JI, other parties, including the Awami National Party, Qaumi Watan Party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and PPP, had also demanded the immediate merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the abolition of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), and the representation of tribes in the KP Assembly.
The JUI-F and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, another ally of the PML-N in the Centre, had opposed significant parts of the committee report, including the merger of Fata with KP.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had recently claimed that he had reached an understanding with Prime Minister Sharif on Fata reforms. According to him, the word 'merger' would be replaced with the 'mainstreaming' of Fata.
