worse than Balochistan is created. That would be disastrous not only for them but for the entire country.
Those advocating use of brute force in Fata do so only because they have been led to believe that people there are colluding with the militants, which is the reason for the area becoming the hub of militancy. This is not at all true. The people there did not bring the problem of militancy to that region. That was brought to their doorsteps by others.
Former dictator Musharraf has recently admitted to having played that role for settling scores with his counterpart in Kabul. This is not the forum for going into its details but suffice to mention that the menace was imposed upon the Fata tribesmen against their wishes. They had no desire to turn their own area into hell. They have been and are at the receiving end only being apportioned blame for the doings of ‘others’. It is ill conceived policies by ‘outsiders’ that have played havoc with Fata.
Such sentiments were also expressed by various speakers at a seminar on Fata recently organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) where the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and chief executive of Fata was the chief guest. Most of the speakers were ‘heavyweights’ from Fata. They were unanimous on the causes of the prevailing situation in Fata and its resolution through empowerment of the people of the area.
They expressed dismay at the atrocities perpetrated on innocent people during military operations, with their houses and entire markets flattened and them being forced to leave and become IDPs. This could have been avoided had recourse been made to the collective wisdom and strength of the tribes instead.
The governor missed the speeches of the speakers from Fata, more by design than default I suspect. Sadly, later when asked some soul-searching questions during the question and answer session he opted to avoid responding to them. It appears he only attended the seminar for some time to mark his presence merely for political expediency.
Some of the proposals that came up in the conference were:-
• Fata should be made a province with a government of its own.
• It should be merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to share the government with the people there.
• Fata should be bifurcated from the administrative control of governor KP to have a governor of its own, from among the people of that area. The governor should have a council, preferably elected, called ‘Fata Council’ with equal representation from each tribal agency and frontier region to deal with matters concerning the whole of Fata. Under its supervision each tribal agency should have a council called ‘agency council’ to handle matters relating to that particular agency. And further down the line each tehsil in an agency should have a ‘tehsil council’ to handle matters at the grassroots level.
The best way to decide whether Fata should be made a separate province, merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or bifurcated from the administrative control of governor KP should be through a referendum by the people in Fata. Let outsiders with no stakes in that area stop interfering in Fata’s affairs. Let the people there decide what is good for them and what is not.
The people of Fata should be empowered to deal with all matters concerning that area. They would be in a better position to guard against militancy compared to the existing system of administration which has brought nothing but havoc and misery to Fata.
The credit for arranging the seminar in the heart of the capital just two kilometres from the Presidency, whose resident rules Fata directly but has not visited it yet, goes to Ambassador Masood Khan and his team in the institute. Irrespective of the fact whether policymakers pay heed and work on the proposals or not, an excellent attempt has been made by the institute to highlight the core issues Fata faces.
The writer is a former ambassador.
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