ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly (NA) on Monday unanimously approved the26th Constitutional Amendment Bill which increases the number of seats inNational and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies from the erstwhile FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Under the bill, the number of NA seats from former FATA will be increasedto 12 from six. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, seats will be increasedto 24 from 16.
Speaking on the NA floor, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the entire nationstood with the people of tribal areas who had faced difficult times. “Thenation wants them to be mainstreamed and have a voice. I am happy thatthere is a consensus among all parties to increase their seats tomainstream them.”
The prime misted added that provinces would give three per cent of theirshare from the NFC award to the tribal areas. “I want to tell the provincesthat the decision to allocate three per cent from the NFC award isnecessary because of the destruction in FATA due to the war on terror. KPcan never fulfil this from its budget.”
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“Development of FATA will only take place when the provinces chip in thethree per cent,” said Prime Minister Imran Khan.