Challenges in ex-Fata

Development work in the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has suffered massively – first because of the war on terror and then due to a lack of funds allocated to it. Now Federal Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin has assured a special parliamentary committee that he will take up the issue of the promised National Finance Commission (NFC) share with all the provinces. The recently merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa deserve a better deal, having been neglected for so long. The Special Committee on Development of erstwhile Fata has taken a right step by bringing up this issue once again. There is certainly an urgent need to expedite efforts for developing consensus among all stakeholders for allocation of adequate funds for the region. Though the minister wants the provinces to agree for three percent allocation from the divisible pool of the 10th NFC Award, this proposal needs some dissection. There can hardly be two opinions about the special focus that Fata requires due to its strategic location and over four decades of suffering the people endured due to the situation in Afghanistan.

There is also the matter of the stalled process of compensation in South Waziristan to the war-affected people. The spending mechanism on projects in this region also needs revision. A perennially slow pace of utilising the allocations from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) does not alleviate the harsh circumstances that the local people face. Though there are dozens of colleges in that region, there is a need to focus on employability of the students as they have lacked exposure to the outside world for long. Most degree holders from that region are unable to get suitable jobs because they have not been exposed to practical life in their relative academic fields. Fata was also digitally deprived, and that deprivation is still going on.

To make progress after the merger, this region deserves digital freedom. Attaining digital access is a fundamental right which must be respected. There has been an undeclared digital policy which is contrary to the norms of today’s digitally dependent world. Restoration of the internet in ex-Fata must be implemented now that people from the former Fata region have moved back home and feel cut off from the rest of the country due to a lack of 3G and 4G services. Then there is also the demand for increasing ex-Fata’s provincial assembly seats and extension of the judiciary to the region. But still the most significant matter remains the three percent NFC award share. The federal government and the provinces need to come to an agreement about this as soon as possible.