Moot calls for steps to bring FATA, GB into national mainstream

ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a one-day national dialogue here on Thursday stressed the need to launch concerted efforts for the mainstreaming of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged tribal districts as well as the Gilgit-Baltistan region and urged the government to expedite rehabilitation and reconstruction process in the region on priority basis to remove their sense of deprivation and bring a positive change in the life of the common man.

The sessions titled ‘Mainstreaming of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tribal Districts into National/Political Architecture: Challenges and Solutions’ and ‘Mainstreaming Gilgit-Baltistan: Concerns, Reservations and Aspirations’ were organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) as part of its national dialogue series. Former governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces Owais Ahmed Ghani and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman were chief guests at the two sessions.

Eminent speakers included Amir Rana, Director Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), Ahmer Bilal Soofi, President and Founder of Research Society of International Law and Dr Saranjam Baig, Director of Center for Research on CPEC (CRC).

Welcome address was delivered by Acting President IPRI Brig (r) Mehboob Qadir. Former ambassador Inamul Haq moderated the first session titled: ‘Mainstreaming of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tribal Districts into National/Political Architecture: Challenges and Solutions’. Professor at Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar, Dr Sohail Shehzad gave a presentation on ‘Tribalism and Rewaj and Proposed Rule of Law Reforms in KPTD: Challenges in Transforming Traditional Institutions into Formal Justice Institutions’. Dr Waseem Ishaque of the National Defence University, Islamabad, spoke on ‘Internal Security Challenges and Socio-Economic Dynamics of KPTD: Land Ownership and Tribal Social Fabric and Implications of Mainstreaming’.

In their speeches, the speakers declared that KP and erstwhile FATA were ‘congenital twins’ as their law and order and economy were intertwined. They stressed the need to overcome multiple challenges arising out of the merger and launch immediate initiatives to bring about a positive impact on the collective and individual life of the people of the new districts. The speakers emphasised that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan should also be brought in the national mainstream on the pattern of the erstwhile FATA. They said the federal government should play its role in alleviating the sufferings and deprivations of the people of the region who had suffered a lot at the hands of successive governments over the years. They argued that the people of GB region, which is a natural defence line of Pakistan, be mainstreamed by giving them due rights and adequate opportunities to grow and prosper.