Let Fata decide

While pleading Fata’s case in the press and electronic media as well as at different national and international fora for the last so many years I have been invariably asked one question: why has Fata not been developed and mainstreamed to bring it at par with the rest of the country?
The answer to that is simple and straightforward. Those ruling Fata do not want to develop that area and want to keep it backward so that the people there can be more easily manipulated into playing whatever role is decided for them by ‘others’ in regional politics. Local inhabitants have never been associated with the process of policymaking nor made part of administration. All that is done for them by the civil and military establishment. Interlinked with that is the massive corruption and money-making that goes on in this process, which those at the helm of affairs are loath to part with.
During the last 13 years of military operations entire villages and bazaars in Fata have been razed to the ground and more than two million men, women and children made IDPs; these people still languish in the slums of many cities. The money donated by foreign governments, time and again, for their return and rehabilitation is not spent for this purpose but is always diverted for projects elsewhere in the country. This biased and unjust treatment by the government is severely felt and criticised by everyone in Fata.
Projects like the metro-bus are propping up in other cities, while the people of Fata are neglected – strengthening the feeling of alienation among the residents of Fata. This feeling of alienation is growing faster in the minds of the younger generation as they are discouraged, humiliated and subjected to uncalled for physical searches at every place simply because they belong to Fata. The government has to make drastic changes, and very rapidly, if it wants to avoid a situation where the youth start taking matters into their own hands and a situation worse than Balochistan is created. That would be disastrous not only for them but for the entire country.
Those advocating use of brute force in Fata do so only because they have been led to believe that people there are colluding with the militants, which is the reason for the area becoming the hub of militancy. This is not at all true. The people there did not bring the problem of militancy to that region. That was brought to their doorsteps by others.
Former dictator Musharraf has recently admitted to having played that role for settling scores with his counterpart in Kabul. This is not the forum for going into its details but suffice to mention that the menace was imposed upon the Fata tribesmen against their wishes. They had no desire to turn their own area into hell. They have been and are at the receiving end only being apportioned blame for the doings of ‘others’. It is ill conceived policies by ‘outsiders’ that have played havoc with Fata.
Such sentiments were also expressed by various speakers at a seminar on Fata recently organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) where the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and chief executive of Fata was the chief guest. Most of the speakers were ‘heavyweights’ from Fata. They were unanimous on the causes of the prevailing situation in Fata and its resolution through empowerment of the people of the area.
They expressed dismay at the atrocities perpetrated on innocent people during military operations, with their houses and entire markets flattened and them being forced to leave and become IDPs. This could have been avoided had recourse been made to the collective wisdom and strength of the tribes instead.
The governor missed the speeches of the speakers from Fata, more by design than default I suspect. Sadly, later when asked some soul-searching questions during the question and answer session he opted to avoid responding to them. It appears he only attended the seminar for some time to mark his presence merely for political expediency.
Some of the proposals that came up in the conference were:-
• Fata should be made a province with a government of its own.
• It should be merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to share the government with the people there.
• Fata should be bifurcated from the administrative control of governor KP to have a governor of its own, from among the people of that area. The governor should have a council, preferably elected, called ‘Fata Council’ with equal representation from each tribal agency and frontier region to deal with matters concerning the whole of Fata. Under its supervision each tribal agency should have a council called ‘agency council’ to handle matters relating to that particular agency. And further down the line each tehsil in an agency should have a ‘tehsil council’ to handle matters at the grassroots level.
The best way to decide whether Fata should be made a separate province, merged into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or bifurcated from the administrative control of governor KP should be through a referendum by the people in Fata. Let outsiders with no stakes in that area stop interfering in Fata’s affairs. Let the people there decide what is good for them and what is not.
The people of Fata should be empowered to deal with all matters concerning that area. They would be in a better position to guard against militancy compared to the existing system of administration which has brought nothing but havoc and misery to Fata.
The credit for arranging the seminar in the heart of the capital just two kilometres from the Presidency, whose resident rules Fata directly but has not visited it yet, goes to Ambassador Masood Khan and his team in the institute. Irrespective of the fact whether policymakers pay heed and work on the proposals or not, an excellent attempt has been made by the institute to highlight the core issues Fata faces.
The writer is a former ambassador.
Email: waziruk@hotmail.com