ISLAMABAD, December 21: Opposition lawmakers staged a walkout from the National Assembly for the ninth consecutive session after a bill on the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) reforms was absent from the agenda once again, sources reported on Thursday.
On Tuesday, after the opposition registered its protest over the government’s inability to table the Fata reforms bill, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had assured parliamentarians that the bill would be presented in the lower house on Wednesday. Despite the speaker’s assurance, however, the bill was not presented in the Assembly on Wednesday which sparked protests and a walkout by the opposition. Hours after Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch announced in parliament that the government intended to introduce “Supreme Court and High Court (Extension of Jurisdiction to Fata) Bill 2017 in the National Assembly on Thursday (today), Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) jirga council members regarding the Fata reforms for the first time.
The meeting between the premier and the JUI-F members did not produce any fruitful results and a member of the council declared that the party’s reservations over the reforms remained.
However, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, who is looking after the law ministry after Zahid Hamid quit as law minister last month, told Dawn that the two parties were “near a consensus”.
Come Thursday, the legislation was missing from the agenda yet again, prompting a strong protest from the opposition leaders who staged a walkout from the Lower House for the ninth consecutive session. On Wednesday, PPP leader Naveed Qamar asserted that the opposition would continue to stage protests and walkouts until the government agreed to debate the Fata reforms bill in the assembly. – Agencies
