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Friday March 29, 2024

The debate on Fata

By our correspondents
November 29, 2015
A few days ago, history was made when parliamentarians from Fata introduced a bill in the National Assembly asking for an amendment to Article 247 (7) of the constitution to reset the future status of Fata.
Whether or not parliament approves the bill, these parliamentarians have managed to draw the attention of the nation to the injustices Fata has had to face. But the focus of the media on the issue is dying down gradually as it usually does. This makes one fear that the situation may go back into the abyss where it was kept hidden and out of sight for the last several years.
In order to avert the danger of a political revolt in parliament, the government quickly constituted a five-member committee to look into the matter and discuss the future course of action with all the stakeholders in Fata. Whether or not the committee will achieve its objectives will be seen in due time, but the fact that the committee does not include anyone from Fata casts a shadow of doubt on the process and reflects badly on the government’s intentions of reforming Fata in accordance with the wishes of its people.
Why is it that the members of parliament from Fata suddenly decided to highlight this issue by contesting against the speaker, the government’s prime nominee in the National Assembly? It is unclear if they did so of their own volition or because they received an encouraging clue from the displeasure expressed in the ISPR press release on the non-implementation of important points in the National Action Plan, including reforms in Fata.
Whoever raised this point deserves to be given full credit for bringing the plight of the people of Fata into the limelight. It has also exposed the shallow knowledge many politicians and socalled experts possess of the area. It was evident from the way they pontificated on television talk shows that they did not even have a rudimentary idea of the core issues which the people of Fata have been facing for decades. They made it appear as though this issue has cropped up all of a sudden and had never existed earlier.
Another surprise was the recommendation that most of the participants in these talk shows made. They suggested that the laws of the land should be extended overnight to Fata so that we could all live under the same law. Perhaps this can happen eventually, but Fata is not a newly discovered island in the sea which must be immediately brought under the law of the land . Have the tribal areas not existed all these years since independence and were they not even referred to in the same constitution as the other parts of Pakistan? Yet, Fata has been governed by a completely different set of laws (if they can be called laws).
Where were these advocates at the time of independence and why didn’t they set forth these demands earlier? If they could live with two sets of rules for so long, why is there sudden impatience now when the people in Fata are struggling to mainstream the region?
I wish it were easy or even possible for me to explain in this limited space the intricacies of the system in vogue to convince the readers that it is not just a question of making Fata a separate province or merging it into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The real issue is the system of governance that is to be adopted for the tribal people who were subjected for generations to the heinous Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). And in the last couple of decades, they have also seen their tribal systems of justice, centuries-old traditions and tribal checks and balances systematically destroyed by the powers-that-be in the area so that a particular agenda could be implemented via certain non-state actors receiving official patronage.
Will the people of Fata be empowered to govern their own land? This is one question that needs to be addressed before any decision is taken regarding the creation of a new province or the merging of Fata with KP. But before that, it is important to see whether or not the powers-that-be will even agree to this change.
Fata has remained underdeveloped because the area and its people have been used for achieving objectives that were not in their own interests. Had this not have been the case, Fata would have been on the road to prosperity much earlier on.
We should have learned from our mistakes in the past and initiated development in Fata. Unfortunately, we did not. Now, we must allow the local people to decide how they will integrate into the national political system to become an inseparable part of the democratic setup. They have contributed endlessly in the past and have rendered unmatched sacrifices in the war on terror. This they would continue doing so in the future as well if treated at par with other citizens of this country. Let them join in on their terms and conditions.
Fata is beyond rich in mineral resources. It has reserves of oil and gas as well as minerals and gold deposits. Granting Fata integration into Pakistan’s mainstream will provide us opportunities to explore these treasures and benefit from its riches.
Let us not waste this opportunity by denying them what they truly deserve and that which is their inalienable right of empowerment. Let them have a government of their own even if Fata is to be bifurcated from the administrative control of the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in anticipation of the larger decision about the future course of action for the region. Allow Fata citizens administrative powers over their own land instead of permitting those sitting in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to conduct political experiments on them.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com