The National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) deferred "The Tribal Areas Rewaj Bill, 2017 (Government Bill)" for its next meeting with the suggestion to review the Bill while sharing with the people of their constituencies. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of MNA Muhammad Jamal ud Din.

The committee was informed that after enactment the Bill, it will repeal the FCR Law in FATA as it was the longstanding demand of the people of FATA. To a question regarding the word of merger of FATA in KP, he told the committee that there were a total of 26 recommendations made by the FATA Reforms Committee for reforms in tribal areas. He further said the committee had the mandate to pass or reject the said bill.

The members from FATA raised their strong reservations over tax extension to FATA and demanded the federal government to review it. MNA Bismillah Khan also staged a token walkout on the decision of imposing tax in FATA and said the FATA was a war-torn area and it would be great injustice with the people of FATA if the decision was not withdrawn by the federal government. The committee also decided that FATA members who were not the members of the committee would also be invited in the next meeting to get their point of view/input regarding the aforementioned bill.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017