PESHAWAR: The federal government on Tuesday decided to dissolve the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) following the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry while speaking to Geo Newssaid, “After the merger of Fata, the provincial government will look over the affairs of the tribal areas which is why we have decided to dissolve the Ministry of SAFRON.”
“There are over 1.7 million Afghan refugees in the country who are our guests and we want them to be safely repatriated,” Chaudhry added.
Further, official sources said the government has also decided to close down the Fata Secretariat.
“The Ministry of Interior overlooks the issues of refugees which is why the four Afghan commissionerates and chief commissioner for Afghan refugees which were reporting to the Ministry of SAFRON will now be under the interior ministry,” sources added.
Stating that 17,000 Khasadar Force troops and 11,000 Levies personnel were deployed in the tribal areas, the sources said, “A decision will be taken soon regarding whether the Levies and Khasadar force should be under the federal or the provincial government.”
