challenged these resolutions in the Peshawar High Court. In 1994, on the demand of the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammad – a religious group led by Sufi Mohammad who also operated a pressure group that later on got involved in militant activities in Swat, Dir and Malakand – Shariah was enacted in courts along with Pakistan Civil and Penal Code. Later in 2009, the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was introduced for qazi courts along with the provincial administrative setup in Malakand. Post-2009 was the most traumatic period for people living in Pata.
It is ironic that Pata is not much different from Fata in terms of political and economic empowerment. The question is: why are Fata parliamentarians demanding only amendments? Is this a backlash of the presidential ordinance concerning voting procedures in the Senate elections? Is it a reaction to the absence of funds available to Fata parliamentarians in the present budget? Do the local elites of Fata now want space in the provincial assembly to manipulate it the way they are doing so in the National Assembly and Senate?
Somehow, these demands for amendments sound very shady now. How many of them raised a voice or helped internally displaced tribals due to the ongoing militancy? Do they have any understanding of what repercussions will follow if it is merged in the province without self-rule? How will the Pata status change the fate of poor, ordinary tribals?
These queries need to be answered. Unless political, social and economic transformation is guaranteed to ordinary tribals, no reform or amendment is going to help them.
The writer is a political analyst from Fata.
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