ISLAMABAD – President Mamnoon Hussain signed today a landmark bill for themerger of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) with KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP).

KP Assembly on Sunday approved the KP-FATA merger bill with two-thirdsmajority. Earlier, it was already paased from the both houses of theParliament.

The landmark bill will merge the tribal areas comprising seven agencies andsix frontier regions with KP. Tribal people will get representation in theKP Assembly through the Thirty-First Amendment Act.

The bill approved by Parliament is titled as the Thirty-First AmendmentAct, 2018.

In the lower house, the bill was moved by Minister for Law and JusticeChaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk. Two hundred and twenty-nine parliamentariansvoted in favour of the constitutional amendment, while one voted againstit. The bill was opposed by government-allied parties JUI-F andPashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).

In Senate, 71 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill while five opposed theconstitutional amendment.