Fully committed to FATA's mainstreaming, merger: PM Abbasi

Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi on Thursday said federal and provincial governments were unanimously committed for mainstreaming of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and its merger with Khyber Pukhtunkhwa to ensure its development.

Talking to a delegation ( Jirga) of youth wings of political parties belonging to FATA here, the Prime Minister said the high-level implementation committee on FATA Reforms was ensuring speedy progress on constitutional, administrative and legal matters, a PM office statement said here.

The delegation said setting aside political affiliations, the people and youth of FATA demanded mainstreaming of FATA on fasttrack basis and its merger with KPK.

The delegation thanked the Prime Minister for inviting the representative of youth from FATA at the PM House and providing them an opportunity to present their point of view on important national issue.

They stressed that FATA's merger must not be delayed on behest of a few people and the matter must be settled on an urgent basis.

The meeting was organized by Journalist Saleem Safi who apprised the Prime Minister that it was the right of people of FATA to get facilities at par with rest of the country. Federal Minister for SAFRON Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch attended the meeting.

The FATA youth delegation comprised representatives from Muslim Students Federation, Insaf Students, Qaumi Watan Party Youth Wing, Islami Jamiat Talaba, FATA Students Organization, Khyber Students Organization and other organizations.

Meanwhile, Khaqan Abbasi directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to immediately convene the Policy Formulation Committee constituted under the direction of the Supreme Court of Pakistan for early finalization of policy options for Hajj 2018 and its approval from the Cabinet.

The prime minister was chairing a meeting on Hajj policy here at the PM's Office, a PM media office statement said. Afterwards, the process of inviting applications should be started as soon as possible so as to complete the balloting process intime and ensure timely arrangements and training of the Hujjaj, he added.

He also directed that special considerations should be given to the applicants over the age of 75 years and to those who apply for three consecutive years but were not selected through the balloting process.

Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, secretary Religious Affairs Division, Pakistan Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and senior officials were present during the meeting.

The prime minister was given a detailed briefing on Hajj operations and efforts being made by the ministry to improve the system. It was informed that the present government, during its tenure, had accorded special attention towards better facilitation of the Hujjaj performing their religious duty.

The confidence of the people over the fairness and transparency of the system was clearly reflected through the number of 338,696 applications received in 2017 as compared to 86,919 applications in 2013.

The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the overall improvements made during the last four years in providing quality and affordable accommodation, better catering and transport facilities to the Hujjaj. Matters pertaining to the security of Zaireen visiting Iran and Iraq also came under discussion during the meeting.