Top civil-military body endorses Fata-KP merger

ISLAMABAD: The National Security Committee (NSC), the country’s top civil-military body, has given the go-ahead to the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi presided over a meeting of the NSC at the PM House. Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Director General ISI Lieutenant Generl Naveed Mukhtar and key ministers attended the meeting.

The committee expressed the resolve that Pakistan would continue to play its role for peace and security in the region and beyond.

The resolve came in response to a briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the committee on the regional and global security.

The committee expressed satisfaction on the principled stand taken by Pakistan on Kashmir and Palestine and its articulation at various world forums.

The prime minister apprised the participants that his consultations with leaders of other political parties in Parliament on the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reflected a broad consensus.

The NSC weighed all the pros and cons in detail and endorsed the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the administrative and judicial institutional structures and laws of the province would be introduced, according to a statement issued after the huddle.

The committee directed the ministries concerned to work out constitutional, legal and administrative modalities for the merger in consultation with all parties in Parliament.

It also endorsed provision of additional development funds for Fata region during the next ten years with the stipulation that these funds would not be re-appropriated to any other area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.