ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that FATA’s merger with KP will end sense of deprivation among tribal people.

“The time has come that the tribal people will be brought into [the] mainstream to end their sense of deprivation,” the premier said while chairing the federal cabinet meeting here on Thursday.

The cabinet has approved in principle recommendations of the FATA reforms committee, which includes the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and repeal of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

PM Nawaz stressed the need to focus on underdeveloped areas with the aim to improve the living standards of people.

“The people of Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will be given their due rights,” he told the participants.

The meeting was told that the process of mainstreaming of Fata will be carried out in a time span of five years.

Later, committee’s chairman, adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz told journalists that necessary amendments will be made in the constitution to enable people of Fata elect their representatives to K-P assembly for the general elections in 2018.

FCR, he added, would be repealed and replaced with a new Rawaj system as per the recommendations.

The recommendations include setting a schedule for the repatriation of all temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) by April 30 this year, while the reconstruction in the areas would be completed by 2018.