how the governor can do that without inspecting any project for which funds have been allocated, to check its progress or status, is beyond comprehension. The governor cannot visit the area without ‘permission’ and even if allowed to do so his visit is limited to only a few hours during which it is not physically possible, even if he wishes, to inspect any project. He travels by air from Peshawar to the respective tribal agency, spends a little time addressing a select gathering of Maliks/notables and then flies back to Peshawar. This is all the governor does when he visits Fata.
The same applies to the visits by the corps commander although obviously he does not need the permission of the governor to visit Fata. But whenever he does go there his visit is also limited to a few hours unless the occasion demands otherwise. He meets his soldiers to boost their morale and holds meetings, if required, with the local notables.
Like the governor he also opts not to travel by road in order to observe firsthand the conditions and difficulties of the local people there.
Fata residents are poverty-stricken, peace-loving people who have become circumstantial victims of policies of power politics made by outsiders. They are the victims of a policy to breed fighters in their area to eject the Soviets from Afghanistan without a thought about the blowback such a policy would have on the area; of policies of having ‘strategic interests’ in Afghanistan and of nurturing proxies against our neighbour to the east, without the foresight to visualise that one day these pliant gun-toting proxies were bound to turn into disgruntled battle-hardened monsters who would spread out and set all corners of Pakistan afire. And through no fault of their own the poor tribal residents have been caught between a rock and a hard place, the militants on one side and the state on the other...trusted by neither and at the gunpoint of both.
They have neither revolted against the state nor taken up arms against the military to deserve this treatment. They cannot and should not be condemned for the wrongs of others. Miscreants are everywhere; they were found in every major city and handed over to the US but the ordinary people there were not punished so why this discriminatory attitude with the people of Fata – where everyone has to suffer for the sins of others?
This unjust and biased attitude has brought Fata to the brink of disaster, its youth totally frustrated and facing challenges at every place – be it the office of the political agent, an academic institution or a government office. They are discouraged everywhere and, at times, refused help simply because they come from Fata. This needs to be corrected before matters reach a point of no return. It must not continue anymore because that would force them to take matters into their own hands. That, in turn, would be disastrous.
To be continued
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: wazirukhotmail.com