The wisdom of the tribes

For the last seven months the nation was kept on tenterhooks by the government; being told that it would very soon hear good news about the resolution of the problem of militancy through negotiations. After procrastinating for a long time the government finally constituted a committee for this purpose. This was immediately reciprocated by the Taliban who announced their own committee for the same purpose. This gave rise to expectations that some headway would soon be made by the two committees towards restoration of peace in the country.
Some positive signals emanated from the meetings of the committees for an agreement on ceasefire but the release of a video by the Taliban showing the beheading 23 Frontier Corps personnel in Afghanistan suddenly dashed all hopes of peace. The talks were suspended and the next breaking news on the media was that of aircraft carrying out strafing raids in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency on hideouts of militants suspected of being responsible for terrorist activities committed elsewhere in the country.
To understand the complexities of the dialogue process and its pros and cons we first need to look at the constitutional status of Fata and see where it stands now before venturing into understanding the way its affairs are managed by the state.
Article 1 of the constitution recognises Fata as an integral part of the country but Article 247 (b) throws it out of the jurisdiction of parliament, handing it over to the president on a silver platter to govern as he pleases without any hindrance. This article was not framed on the behest of the people of Fata but at the whims of leaders whose political parties unanimously approved the constitution of 1973.
The motives behind including this reprehensible article in the constitution are beyond comprehension but are certainly not commendable. Worse followed later when followers of those leaders started attributing all ills to the people of Fata, without realising or conceding that by virtue of depriving people living there of many constitutional provisions that are the right of residents of all other areas of the country they were completely choking off avenues of progress, development and prosperity for them. They, thereby, condemned the tribal residents to a harsh poverty-stricken life bereft of facilities of education, health or means of economic uplift.
Those who blame people in these areas don’t concede even for a minute that it was not -- and is still not -- their (the people of the tribal areas) fault but that of the constitutional aberration. The situation has been further compounded by bad policies made by successive governments that have taken policy decisions for Fata without any involvement whatsoever of the people there. And the instrument for implementation of these misbegotten policies is the FCR.
The harsh Frontier Crimes Regulations, commonly known as the FCR, was imposed in Fata by the British in 1901 to serve their own colonial interests. Whose interests are we serving now by still retaining the FCR?
Let’s see what the word ‘Fata’ stands for. Have we ever seriously considered the importance of its second letter ‘A’ and what it stands for? It stands for ‘administered’ -- not governed. In other words, Fata has no government with public representatives like elsewhere in the country but is administered by civil and military officers. And administered it certainly is, with a much harsher hand -- especially by the military -- than even our erstwhile colonial masters.
Fata is neither a part of any other province nor has it been given that status to qualify for a government of its own like other provinces in the country. It is the only unfortunate area in the entire country that is not governed but ‘administered’ from faraway Islamabad. The locals have no say whatsoever in the running of their own areas. It is all done for them by outsiders. This is the root of all problems and must be corrected if we want to get rid of militancy from that area. If this is not done, it will resurface in one form or another even if we manage to eradicate it once.
For this to happen, the president of Pakistan, under whose exclusive jurisdiction the area falls, should bring about positive changes by granting self-government, something he can do with just one stroke of the pen. He is fully authorised to do so under the constitution without having to go through the rigours of parliamentary authentication.
Now let us look at the process of dialogue that crash landed even before it had fully taken off. The representatives of the two committees did not even bother to visit the area (Fata) or interact with the people there -- except for Prof Ibrahim who did travel to Miran Shah to exchange views with the Taliban whom he was representing in the dialogue process.
Though a failure, the talks were only conducted between the government and the Taliban. The common people of Fata, whom the problem affects the most, were completely left out of the talks process. The matter is being dealt with solely by outsiders who have no stakes in the area. This is what Fata has been experiencing since becoming a part of the state of Pakistan.
The problem that the people of Fata have with the government is not on the principle of eradication of militancy but on the way it is being done in their areas. Military operations of the scale that the people have witnessed there in the last ten years are ample proof that might alone cannot eliminate militancy; in fact it only causes suffering to the general population while the militants continue to roam free.
If the government is serious about resolving this problem, particularly in the wake of the ceasefire announced by the Taliban, then it should consider benefiting from the collective wisdom and experience of the tribesmen rather than resorting to a military operation. This, I think, is the only -- and the best -- option for the resolution of the conflict on a permanent basis. All other options lead nowhere and provide temporary relief at best. The choice for the government is either to involve the people of Fata or to keep fighting an unending war.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com