ISLAMABAD: The federal budget 2017-18 presented by the government has slammed door on much-trumpeted Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) reforms as no project of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) has been earmarked for the tribal belt, said Senator Farhatullah Babar during a budget debate session on Tuesday.
The senator said that the government had not allocated even a penny in the budget for the much-hyped FATA reforms. He said that the government had allegedly violated human rights of the people by transferring the resources and powers of the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) to the executive and setting up of a parallel human rights body under the executive for which the funds had been allocated under the PSDP.
“The law provides for the National Commission for Human Rights to oversee state’s performance; however a notification issued in March brought it under the administrative control of the government. The commission for Human Rights was supposed to take notice of human rights violations committed by the executive, how could it be brought under the executive,” he questioned. He said that it seemed that protection of human rights was not on the agenda of the government.
Moreover, he said that transparency and accountability were alien to the government, as “it had persistently refused to provide information about post-retirement perks and privileges of retired generals”.
