PESHAWAR: In a premier move to include territories formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the policy-making for the first time, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has announced plans to hold general polls against 16 general seats of the provincial assembly in the merged tribal districts in June, this year.
Official sources have noted that the first-ever elections would be held for the newly-created provincial assembly seats, PK 100 to PK 115, in tribal districts merged into the province in the wake of the 25th Constitutional amendment.
This merger has increased the strength of total general seats in the provincial legislature from 99 to 115.
It may be pertinent to mention here that on Monday, regular courts opened doors in tribal districts of the erstwhile FATA.
Peshawar High Court Registrar, Khawaja Wajihud Din, said that twenty-eight judicial officers and eighteen prosecutors were posted in the tribal districts.
On May 24, 2018, the parliament approved a constitutional amendment [The Constitution (Thirty-First Amendment) Bill 2018] to merge FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This proposal was also unanimously agreed upon in the Senate, a day after.
The amendment reduces the number of seats in the National Assembly from 342 to 336 while the members of the National Assembly from Fata elected in the 2018 election are to continue working till the Lower House dissolves.
Elections on these provincial legislature seats shall be held within one year after the general elections 2018, the amendment noted.
Published in Daily Times, March 6th 2019.
