FATA forgotten

While the political parties are jubilant that they have delivered what the people expected of them in the form of the 18th Amendment, the people of FATA are bemoaning the fact that they have been left high and dry, not knowing what to do. Should they join in the celebrations or should they mourn the passing of an amendment that contains nothing for them. They were hoping that their decades-long demands concerning their areas would be incorporated in the amendments through changes to the Article 247 of the Constitution. They were dreaming that the draconian laws of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) would be amended and the Political Parties Act would be extended to their areas as promised by the president. The prime minister had also made similar promises earlier.

The Reforms Committee itself is on record as having proposed that the Article 247 be amended, saying that "the government should take immediate steps to implement the reforms announced by the president in respect of FATA, particularly about major changes in the FCR and providing opportunities to the national political parties to organise their activities in that area. The government may also associate other parties who are stakeholders in the ongoing consultations regarding administration of tribal areas."

That this recommendation has not found place in the draft is in itself a mystery. It seems some invisible yet powerful force prevented the committee from including the recommendation in its final list. The members of the committee, particularly those from FATA, would be in a better position to explain as to which force was so powerful to do that. What has happened to the leadership of political parties championing the cause of Pashtoons? What stopped them from raising their voices against maintaining the status quo in FATA? What stops them from joining hands to demand the abolition/amendment of the FCR? When are they going to show solidarity with the people of FATA who stand deprived of the fundamental right to protest against injustice?

If the name of NWFP could be changed with relative ease because it was given by our colonial masters and did not represent the major ethnic group living in that province, the name FATA was also given to the tribal areas by the colonial masters and it doesn't represent the people in any sense. If Lyallpur could become Faisalabad, Montgomery became Sahiwal and NWFP became Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, why isn't FATA given a name representing the people living there?

Why is the leadership of the nationalist parties of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan silent on the injustices done to FATA in the 18th Amendment bill? Why have they maintained a stony silence by not raising the issue? The members in parliament from FATA have won elections on individual basis or with the support of invisible hands. They prefer making money over changing the condition of the common man of the areas they represent. They do not support extending the Political Parties Act to FATA because once political parties start functioning in those areas, these pygmies will have no role to play.

Notes of reiteration or dissent were recorded by various parties and individuals but there is no mention of any such thing from the representative of FATA in the committee. He was either asleep during all meetings or was simply not interested in political and economic reforms for his area. Some members from FATA did wake up from their deep slumber and threatened to withdraw their support for the bill in the Senate, only to take it back later. The people of FATA have seen, over the years, what their so-called elected representatives have done for them. If they were to resign from parliament they should have done so when they were ignored by the government while the latter undertook military operation in FATA.

In the last nine years of war against terror, fingers were pointed at FATA for acts of militancy elsewhere in the country. The inhabitants of the tribal areas were accused of breeding militants, providing them with training camps and indulging in acts contrary to the interest of the state. All this was attributed to the backwardness of that area. Now when there was a golden opportunity to get rid of that backwardness by introducing reforms in the FCR, it was missed.

Let's not waste any more time to rid the people of the tribal areas of the reviled FCR which keeps them totally isolated from the outside world. Let us pave the way for the tribesmen to join the mainstream by giving them equal rights and opportunities. Let's bring them at par with the rest of the people of Pakistan. Only then will peace come to them and to the rest of the country.



The writer is a former ambassador hailing from FATA. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com