Fata reforms ‘piecemeal and unsubstantial’

Professor Dr Sarfaraz Khan says Fata’s merger with KP would benefit people despite drawbacks

A Peshawar University teacher has described the entire reform process in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) as “piecemeal” and “unsubstantial”.

Referring to the 1973 constitution while speaking as guest speaker on Monday at a seminar, titled ‘Implications of Fata’s merger with KPK’, Prof Dr Sarfaraz Khan talked about granting special status to Fata, implying that some privileges should be granted to the people living there because a constitution was meant to be “an accord between the citizens and the state”.

The seminar, organised by Dr Moonis Ahmar of the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi, began with a brief overview by Dr Ahmar of the socio-political situation prevailing in Fata.

Prof Khan, who is the director of the Area Study Centre for Central Asia, University of Peshawar, said the Durand Line was a problem, but there was no evidence that Afghanistan created problems for Pakistan during 1956 and 1971 wars. There are enough proofs that Afghanistan had not been having any hostility against Pakistan, he claimed.

He believes that if the military is withdrawn from North Waziristan, it is likely to cause a major shift in the political scenario of the entire region.   Professor Khan, who is an eminent scholar with numerous publications to his credit, highlighted the intervention of Afghanistan and Russia and Britain in shaping the political scenario of Fata. He also talked about the debate that often erupts in Pakistan about Afghanistan’s denial of recognising the Pak-Afghan border called the Durand Line.

However, according to the guest speaker, the rights of the people of Fata are unfortunately violated to the extent that they are not even recognised as human beings. Not only this, he said, the entire region was infected with the virus of terrorism, and therefore perhaps the demand for Fata with special status was being questioned, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which had brought about drastic changes in both national international politics.

He also talked about three options with regard to the status of Fata and one of the options was the tribal region’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “One of the implications of this merger is that Fata would be deprived of the eight seats that it has in the Senate.”

Another implication, he said, was that the annual budget would have to be renegotiated, and yet another implication was the possibility of a tussle between the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who is the agent of the president, and the elected representatives of the province.

Despite all these drawbacks, Dr Khan favours Fata’s merger with the KP as it would benefit the masses. He believes that the people of Fata would be empowered as they would have access to the basic education and health facilities that they are currently deprived of. Moreover, the region would become less prone to terrorism. “But that is possible only when strict measures are taken to eradicate terrorism from this region.”

He concluded his talk by referring to some of the political parties of Pakistan which instead of finding a solution further complicated the matter through political manoeuvring. Later, Professor Dr Moonis Ahmar, giving concluding remarks, said that it was believed that if the merger of Fata had taken place with the North-West Frontier Province in the past, things would not have been as complicated as they were now.

He criticised the delay on the part of the previous governments in deciding about merging Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  and suggested that proper planning be done before implementing the decision of the federal cabinet and the report of Sartaj Aziz on Fata.

The seminar was attended by teachers and students from different departments and followed by a question-answer session.