News Details

05/07/2018

Rehabilitation and reconstruction of newly merged districts of erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Caretaker Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Justice (R) Dost Muhammad Khan and the Caretaker federal Minister for Information & Law Syed Ali Zafar in an one on one meeting agreed to the overall rehabilitation and reconstruction of newly merged districts of erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They further agreed to install an efficient governance structure, give quick relief to the people of FATA and more importantly to mainstream them into the national stream. The meeting took place in the office of Chief Minister at Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar. The Caretaker federal Minister briefed the Caretaker Chief Minister KP on the quick measures, the transfer of resources from the federal government to the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the legal irritants, the constitutional position, the overall proposed exemption of FATA from federal and provincial taxes and the collective responsibility for the infrastructure development in the newly merged districts. The federal government would be recommended certain incentives, relief and expeditious transfer of resources for the overall recovery plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the newly merged districts, the Caretaker federal minister assured. He assured that the federal and the provincial governments were on the same page for removing the legal lacunas and the irritants that might obstruct the smooth transition of mainstreaming the tribal. The Chief Minister said that his government took a number of decisions to discourage unnecessary use of resources adding that that the drain of the resources was totally discouraged. He said that the people of tribal areas suffered heavily and we have to move for quick relief to win them back. His government has already started working on preparing an overall recovery plan for the infrastructure development and more importantly the quick rehabilitation of tribal. He had already setup a task force working round the clock to remove the legal weaknesses in the law making it compatible with the ground realities in tribal areas. The Caretaker Chief Minister said his government was going all out to extend efficient services to the tribal areas and ensure the accessibility of tribal to these services. The extension of the offices, giving proper training to the officers and the official to be posted in new districts has also been planned. However, he wanted proper training to all the officers and the officials. We should remember that there would be new outlook team of officers of all cadres including the judiciary in the newly merged districts and they should know their responsibilities in a totally different situation after the merger. He said that we should not leave any vacuum to be exploited by the miscreants. Mainstreaming the tribal should be the most focused area in the changed new ground reality of the area. The new scheme of think would also carry the traditional Riwaj system, suggesting the continuation of Lungi and the provision of monthly stipend to Ulema adding that the overall recovery plan should take interest all segments of the society. The Caretaker Chief Minister and Caretaker federal Minister agreed to the continuation of Riwaj in addition to the extension of legal procedures. The abrupt removal of reconciliation might disturb the situation and would also overburden the legal course in the tribal area. It will also discourage the lengthy litigation and would continue to be a locally facilitated justice system that was the centuries old and part of the people was comfortable with the system. However the extension of all departments for efficient services and the judiciary will address to the justice dispensation system and the overall recovery plan was the complete package that can totally remove the deprivation of the tribal.