Ignoring Fata

It is disgraceful just how divorced Fata is deliberately kept from the national mainstream, constitutionally, politically, socially and economically, through a set of colonial arrangements (the FCR) and the almost-colonial rationale of the Pakistani state. It is even worse how the entire region is also kept at the periphery of national attention and concern, which becomes apparent during tragic instances like the recent suicide attack in the Mohmand Agency and the scant coverage and outrage it got.

Fata’s misfortune lies in its ‘strategic importance’ which has dehumanised the region, its people, and the lives they lead. And we actively participate in this dehumanisation with our apathy, indifference and ignorance towards them.

Hafsa Khawaja

Lahore