ISLAMABAD: The muchawaited Fata reforms seem to have become a bone of contention between the members of the National Assembly from the tribal region and a key ally of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N with the former cautioning the government against delaying the reforms.

That the reforms are going to hit a snag became clear on Wednesday when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed the government to hold back the controversial Rewaj Bill, presented by it in the National Assembly on Monday, till his return to the country.

The decision of the prime minister, who is on an official visit to China, was conveyed to legislators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) by Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch during a meeting held at his ministry in the day.

Sources told Dawn that the legislators lodged a protest over the government`smove and were considering holding an emergency meeting in a day or two to devise their future strategy.

The Fata lawmakers believe that if the bills on Fata reforms are not approved by parliament before presentation of the federal budget on May 26, the reforms may face another prolonged delay.

After his China visit, the prime minister is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia to attend the Arab-IslamicAmerican Summit in the kingdom on May 20-21.The Fata representatives who met the minister included Shah Jee Gul Afridi, Shahabuddin Khan, Bismillah Khan, Nazir Khan, Ghalib Khan and Qaiser Jamal.

The sources said that Shahabuddin Khan, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N, also had a heated exchange of arguments with the minister when he said that the government had made the decision due to opposition by its allies the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).

The prime minister, according to the sources,issued the directive after receiving a telephone call from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is opposed to the government`s move to go ahead with its plan of merging Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in line with the recommendations of the special committee set up to suggest proposals for mainstreaming the restive tribal areas.

The sources said that the JUI-F chief had contacted the prime minister following his meeting with PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai on Tuesday evening. The two leaders held the meeting when the National Assembly Standing Committee on Safron was discussing the Tribal Areas Rewaj Act 2017, which the government had moved in the National Assembly as a step towards mainstreaming Fata.

Chairman of the committee Mohammad Jamaluddin, who belongs to the JUI-F,lef t the meeting for a short time when he was asked by Maulana Fazl to reach his residence and join his meeting with Mr Achakzai.

According to the sources, Mr Jamaluddin told his party leader that he would not fix any date for the next meeting of the committee to discuss the matter though NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had instructed the committee to present a report on the bill in the house on Thursday.

The committee`s meeting had ended without any consensus on Rewaj Act as almost all the members opposed the bill, terming it not in line with the decision to mainstream Fata.

When contacted, the PkMAP chief confirmed his meeting with the JUI-F leader, but claimed that he had gone to the Maulana`s residence to express solidarity with him over the attack last week on the convoy of Senate Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in Mastung.

When contacted, the Safron minister denied that the progress on Fata reforms had been stopped.

`No, there is nothing of this sort. I have had no contact with (the) PM,` the minister texted when asked to confirm the development.

PPP opposes Rewaj Bill In another related development, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari has directed the party legislators to reject Rewaj Bill as it is against basic human rights and inconsistent with the goal of Fata`s merger with KP.

According to PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Mr Zardari issued the directives at the end of his five-day visit to Peshawar. Mr Zardari has called for transferring powers of the president and his agent KP governor to parliament to empower the people and to usher in genuine reforms in the tribal areas.

The former president said that making the president and the governor the `sole lords` of Fata and the Frontier Crime Regulation were two colonial instruments to keep the Fata people subjugated.