By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The lawyers’ community of Chitral has expressed their strong reservations over the abolition of the status of provincially administered tribal area (PATA) of Malakand Division as a result of 31st constitutional amendment aimed at merging the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In a press conference here on Saturday, the member of KP Bar Council Abdul Wali Khan and president of district bar association Khurshid Mughal and other senior lawyers asked the MPAs belonging to Malakand Division to resist the passage of the constitutional bill to be tabled in the house on Sunday.
They said that the abolition of the status of PATA entailed heavy taxation in the area including the automatic promulgation of Customs and Income Tax Act which will be an unbearable burden on their economy which was badly affected by floods and terrorism in the recent past.
“We are not opposing the merger of FATA which we do welcome but at the same time we will resist the abolition of the status of PATA as it had given a number of concessions including tax exemption to the local people in the articles 246 and 247 of the constitution of the country.
The time was not ripened to revoke the articles of the constitution leading to withdrawal of the concessions and exemptions from the people of the area who are still groaning under the burden of poverty and indigence”, they said.
The lawyers said that the people of Malakand Division had already expressed their unity and power some years ago when the federal government extended the Customs Act to this area and forced by the incessant protests it was later on revoked.
They demanded that the portions of the articles 246 and 247 related with PATA should not be omitted so that the people of Malakand may continue to enjoy the concessions.
