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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Fata merger with KP vital for peace, prosperity’

By our correspondents
February 25, 2017

Islamabad: The only way forward to achieve peace and prosperity in Fata is to this tribal region's merger with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) along the lines recommended in the Frontier Reforms Report for a period of five years and incorporating it in constitution as well.

This was stated by Dr. Robert Nicholas, professor of History, Richard Stockton College, University of New Jersey (USA), while addressing a seminar on ‘Colonial Law: FCR and the Future of Fata’ at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) on ‘Colonial Law, FCR and the future of Fata’ on Friday.

“Seventy important years have been wasted discussing how and what could be done, without taking any positive action regarding the solution of issue. Now when the Frontier Reforms Report has come, no more time should be wasted. The issue has international significance as peace and prosperity in Fata is connected with the prospects of peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and vice versa," said the guest speaker.

While explaining the historical background, Dr. Robert Nicholas said that expansion of British colonial grip of the Indian Subcontinent in the 19th Century caused management problem. He said Britain established their own system of police, justice and Indian Penal Code of 1860, while the British introduced the Punjab Frontier Crimes Regulation in 1887 under which the Governor in Lahore was vested with the authority to address all the problems in the Northwest Frontier Province.

"This Punjab Frontier Crimes Regulation was renamed Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) after the separation of the NWFP from Punjab in 1901. The FCR was established by British as authoritarian, centralised control to bring peace, justice and stability in the border areas and under this, British imposed arbitrary capital punishments," he said.

Dr. Robert Nicholas said after the British withdrawal from the area in 1947, the Pakistani political agents used the same set of regulations and administrative structures to oversee to administer the renamed Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

He said there had been various attempts to introduce reforms in Fata. In 2013, ten important mainstream political parties organised a Joint Committee to bring forward a reforms report to introduce amendment in Constitution and reforming the local bodies elections, etc.

All those political parties forged consensus on the issue. Earlier, Dr. Nazir Hussian, director, SPIR welcomed the guest and said today’s talk was important as the issue was being discussed presently in Pakistan. Vice Chancellor Prof. Javed Ashraf thanked Prof. Robert Nicholas for enlightening students and teachers on the very important topic.