Fata and the FCR

Last year, the government announced a reforms package for Fata – including its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – to great fanfare. Since then, implementation of the package has stalled, and with military operations still being conducted in the area, there seems little hope of integrating Fata with the rest of the country. The All-Fata Political Parties Alliance has been staging a sit-in outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar to protest against the delay in enforcement. The federal government has shown little interest in speeding up the process, likely because some of its own allies are opposed to the merger. As it is, the reforms did not go anywhere near as far enough as they should have. Although the package purportedly repealed the draconian colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation, it replaced it with the Rewaaj Act – which is the FCR in everything but name. The government’s defence is that the Rewaaj Act is only meant to be in place for an interim period to ensure a smooth transition. But that excuse isn’t good enough. The Rewaaj Act still allows for tribal courts to operate and even keeps in place the unjustifiable concept of collective punishment; it just allows the Supreme Court to review the decisions of the tribal courts. If we want Fata to be no different to the rest of the country then we have to treat it as such. That means repealing the FCR in letter and spirit.

A new report on Fata reforms by the National Commission of Human Rights, expected to be released soon, says the FCR is the single biggest obstacle standing in the way of the evolution of Fata. Most political parties have agreed it needs to be done away with. And yet it still exists, and even if the reforms are implemented will continue to exist in the form of the Rewaaj Act for at least five more years. The National Assembly continually dithered on approving even this flawed package, with Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the JUI-F particularly opposed to Fata’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, likely because he doesn’t have any base of support in Fata and is worried this will dilute his support in KP. Such parochial concerns should not be allowed to delay bringing Fata into the mainstream. Both the PTI and the PPP have denounced the Rewaaj Act and the government should now follow suit by ensuring that the citizens of Fata have the same constitutional protections as everyone else.