Fata reforms

Reforms in Fata, already long overdue, have been delayed once again after the reforms bill was suspended by the government in the National Assembly. This last-minute snag came after years of debate, where a reforms committee devised the package which was then approved by the cabinet. The sticking point seems to be the strong opposition of the JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rahman. The JUI-F is framing its resistance as an act of principle, claiming that making Fata part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will endanger relations with Afghanistan since it has always seen the tribal areas as a buffer between the two countries. Officially making it part of KP, according to the Maulana, will be seen as a hostile act. The truth is rather more prosaic. The JUI-F has been opposed to any reforms package that would merge Fata and KP from the start because it would affect its own political power. The party has no support base in Fata and adding seats from the tribal areas to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would dilute its position. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked JUI-F and the government to hold off on the reforms debate till he returns from his trip to Saudi Arabia. This last-minute derailment, when it seemed as if passage of the reforms would be a formality, now threatens the entire package.

Passing the Fata reforms is essential even though there are reasons to be wary of the package as it currently exists. The archaic Frontier Crimes Regulation, which denied the people of Fata access to regular courts and enshrined collective punishment into tribal law, will be repealed but it will be replaced by the Tribal Areas Rewaj Act 2017, which retains some of the problematic aspects of the FCR.    Both the PPP and the PTI have denounced the Rewaj Act.   According to the government, the Rewaj Act is only meant as a temporary stopgap measure while some of the problematic aspects of the merger with KP are worked out. The primary problem is how to solve land disputes. Since land in the tribal areas is usually owned by clans rather than individuals and since there are no land deeds, there are likely to be many differing claims to land. The government thought it best that tribal courts work this out, with the Supreme Court kept as the last avenue of appeal. But such temporary measures have a way of becoming permanent. The end goal of integrating Fata with the rest of the country and finally making its people full citizens of Pakistan with all the constitutional rights that confers on them must always be kept in mind.