Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House on Friday passed the bill extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (SC) and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to the tribal areas.

The extension of the superior courts’ jurisdiction was one of several demands of the people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), seeking treatment to be meted out on a par with the rest of the country.

The bill, part of the supplementary agenda of the Upper House of parliament’s session, was opposed by the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F). Both the parties staged a walkout in protest.

Later, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) managed to pass the bill.

Earlier, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani headed the session comprising the entire House as a committee where Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch briefed the senators on FATA reforms.

On January 12, the National Assembly had approved with a majority The Supreme Court and High Court (Extension Jurisdiction to Federally Administered Tribal Areas) Bill, 2018, moved by Law Minister Mahmood Bashir Virk.

Lawmakers from FATA have been demanding the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since long.

In a meeting on December 26, 2017, the federal cabinet approved the formation of a high-level national implementation committee for FATA reforms.

“The meeting granted ex-post facto approval to the formation of National Implementation Committee on FATA Reforms. Minister for Defence and Commander 11 Corps were included in the high-level implementation committee.

The KP Assembly had adopted a resolution on December 14, 2016 in favour of merging FATA with KP with the aim of rehabilitating and reconstructing the infrastructure, including roads, communications, power lines, water supply, education and health facilities.

The recommendations to bring the tribal areas on a par with the rest of the country were approved by the federal cabinet on March 2, 2017 but the matter had been delayed since then.

Meanwhile, the Senate chairman also formed a special committee to look into the matter raised by Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah regarding acute water shortage in Sindh due to non-implementation of Water Accord 1991.

The committee was formed with the consent of the leader of the house and leader of the opposition.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab Ahmed assured the House that no changes were being made to 18th Amendment of the constitution. He was responding to a calling attention notice moved by Mian Raza Rabbani and Sassui Palijo.

The chairman also admitted an adjournment motion moved by Dr Sikandar Mandhro to discuss the report that Pakistan would run out of forests within next 50 years if deforestation continues at the current rate.

Published in Daily Times, April 14^th 2018.