PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak Thursday said that his government had a stance of complete merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adding it was the best available option in the given circumstances.
He was talking to a delegation of senators and MNAs and other elders of tribal areas at Chief Minister Secretariat here.
The delegation included MNAs Nasir Khan, Al-Haj Shahji Gul, Gulab Jamal Khan, Bismillah, Senator Momeen Khan and others. Phase wise merger would create problems, he observed.
The KP government wanted to strengthen the view of the people of the tribal areas.
“If the merger is to take place then it has to take place in totality and not partially or phase wise, ” he said.
“It is very simple if we are sincere to the merger, just extend the country’s laws and system of governance including the local government plan to the tribal areas who are accustomed to these laws and system”.
Regarding the FATA reforms, he said he had already given his views about it at different forums including Apex committee.
The Chief Minister called upon the elected representatives to make their own decisions for their own future.
‘They should see the provincial government recommendations and developed a consensus after that we would move within the constitution to get our rights. It is a very sensitive issue and should not be left at the back burner,” he said.
However, he asked the parliamentarians and elders to reach at consensus for making a better strategy for their future and their people.
He said “we ought to make Pakistan strong and stable through our collective efforts”.
“If we are not united, it will create problems and make us weak and this can be exploited by the external enemies to interfere in our affairs but if we stand united we will be stronger and defeat the terrorism and other ills and make better decisions for our future, ” he said.
He reminded that we could better understand our own problems as others could not reach to the level of understanding of our problems adding that the existing structure should be extended to the FATA and if the need was, we could make special legislation on need basis for special circumstances.
There was no constitutional bar on the merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said adding reforms process should take place with consensus and anything above this plan would not be acceptable both to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal people.
He said that what his planned was empowering the tribal as per the devolution plan of the province.
He appreciated the willingness of the parliamentarians of tribal area that was a rare case in the history of the country adding that he fully understood the concerns and sentiments of the elected representatives and assured full support in struggle for complete merger of FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (APP)