of the fundamental right to protest against injustice?
If the name of NWFP could be changed with relative ease because it was given by our colonial masters and did not represent the major ethnic group living in that province, the name FATA was also given to the tribal areas by the colonial masters and it doesn't represent the people in any sense. If Lyallpur could become Faisalabad, Montgomery became Sahiwal and NWFP became Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, why isn't FATA given a name representing the people living there?
Why is the leadership of the nationalist parties of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan silent on the injustices done to FATA in the 18th Amendment bill? Why have they maintained a stony silence by not raising the issue? The members in parliament from FATA have won elections on individual basis or with the support of invisible hands. They prefer making money over changing the condition of the common man of the areas they represent. They do not support extending the Political Parties Act to FATA because once political parties start functioning in those areas, these pygmies will have no role to play.
Notes of reiteration or dissent were recorded by various parties and individuals but there is no mention of any such thing from the representative of FATA in the committee. He was either asleep during all meetings or was simply not interested in political and economic reforms for his area. Some members from FATA did wake up from their deep slumber and threatened to withdraw their support for the bill in the Senate, only to take it back later. The people of FATA have seen, over the years, what their so-called elected representatives have done for them. If they were to resign from parliament they should have done so when they were ignored by the government while the latter undertook military operation in FATA.
In the last nine years of war against terror, fingers were pointed at FATA for acts of militancy elsewhere in the country. The inhabitants of the tribal areas were accused of breeding militants, providing them with training camps and indulging in acts contrary to the interest of the state. All this was attributed to the backwardness of that area. Now when there was a golden opportunity to get rid of that backwardness by introducing reforms in the FCR, it was missed.
Let's not waste any more time to rid the people of the tribal areas of the reviled FCR which keeps them totally isolated from the outside world. Let us pave the way for the tribesmen to join the mainstream by giving them equal rights and opportunities. Let's bring them at par with the rest of the people of Pakistan. Only then will peace come to them and to the rest of the country.
The writer is a former ambassador hailing from FATA. Email: wazirukhotmail.com