Babar for revisiting Afghan policy to ensure successful reforms in Fata

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar Saturday called for close scrutiny of the proposed Fata reforms in the Parliament also urging to revisit Afghan policy for implementing the reforms package.

“There cannot be peace and progress in tribal areas without peace in Afghanistan and it calls for revisiting the country’s Afghan policy and reining in non-state actors as pre-condition for the success of any social, political and economic reforms package,” he said while speaking at a symposium organised here by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Fata reforms.

Farhatullah Babar said the critical reform areas include rehabilitation of displaced families, transferring presidential powers with respect to tribal areas to the Parliament, representation to the tribal people in the provincial assembly of KP in the 2018 elections and bringing the proposed local bodies election laws and Riwaj and Jirga Act before the Parliament.

He said the functions of the Governor’s Advisory Council “to assist the governor in development and administrative matters” was vague and called for clearly defining its composition, role and responsibilities so as to end growing militarisation of tribal areas. He also questioned how the promised 10-year development plan for Fata will be carried out. He said 2 percent of divisible pool of National Finance Commission (NFC) Award for Fata amounts to a huge outlay of nearly Rs600 billion during 10 years. He said it is critical to put in place a mechanism that is transparent, competent, participatory and accountable to prevent wastage, corruption and vested interests. 

“The role of civilian agencies, under strong oversight, in carrying out the infrastructure and development projects must be clearly defined and the militarisation of development should be discouraged,” he said.

The senator questioned the title of chief executive to the head of the authority responsible for implementing the 10-year development package, arguing that the words ‘referendum, chief executive and ‘90 days’ had acquired certain notoriety in the political lexicon of Pakistan and must be avoided. “The nomenclature chief executive is intriguing and double edged and brings to mind how General Musharraf played havoc with the country under the rubric of chief executive,” he added.

He said that if the tribal ‘Riwaj’ and Jirga as alternate dispute resolution mechanism were to be institutionalised then the route adopted must be parliamentary legislation and it should not be left to the discretion of the president alone. “The formation of Jirga, its powers, appeal process and implementation of its decisions must be in conformity with norms of human rights and dispensation of justice,” he added.

Welcoming the extension of jurisdiction of High Court and Supreme Court to the tribal areas, he said this should be done forthwith without waiting for a decision on other elements of the reforms package.

He said that there already was consensus as KP Assembly, the Peshawar High Court, the SCBA and tribal people of all shades of opinion had demanded that the jurisdiction of superior courts be extended to tribal areas.

“The legislation for the promised LG polls in tribal areas should be passed in the Parliament instead of an executive order or regulation issued by the president in his discretion or on the advice of the government,” he added.