Fata: for a modest beginning

Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, the new governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, visited Kurram Agency in Fata immediately after taking over charge of his coveted position. Other agencies will also, hopefully, not have to wait long for him to visit them.
This is a good beginning and should continue in the days ahead since this is the best way to keep in touch with the people of the tribes living there and to reassure them that they will not be abandoned as in the past and that the government will stand with them, especially in these difficult days.
Sardar Mehtab was right in boldly admitting openly, while interacting with the media after assuming charge, that Fata has no voice. This is a fact that cannot be denied; Fata has been kept that way by successive governments after independence. Decisions are taken for the people there by others; and instead of contributing positively, this has had negative effects adding to the suffering of the people and the backwardness of the area.
Those who decide matters are least bothered about the consequences of their decisions as they have nothing at stake – their only aim being the ability to maintain the ‘status quo’ for continuation of their rule in the area which gives them immense illegal pecuniary benefits.
For these people Fata is a laboratory where they conduct all sorts of experiments without any checks and balances on their whims. Those controlling them are sitting far away in cosy Islamabad and do not bother to visit the area to ascertain for themselves what is happening on the ground and why things are going from bad to worse instead of moving in the right direction.
Their knowledge is limited to the feedback they receive from representatives who paint a different picture of the area for them so that they do not object to the restrictions that they impose at will such as needless clamping of curfew without caring a fig about the problems that causes to the common citizens there, imposition of heavy fines on tribes on flimsy charges or other degrading ‘punitive’ measures without any justification. Their motive, as the locals believe, is to follow a policy of ‘look busy-do nothing’ and ‘work done-progress nil’ to justify their own existence while ensuring that things do not change on the ground.
Ten long years of war have wreaked havoc and completely devastated Fata. The mess created thus will be difficult to clear completely unless large amounts of funds are injected. But care will have to be taken that the money is not quietly siphoned off by the functionaries there for building palatial houses in other parts of the country, as is happening at present.
During these years militancy has grown stronger, law and order has collapsed, corruption has become endemic, heath and educational institutions have become nonexistent and so on and so forth. The problems are too many to enumerate. Each of these problems is complex enough to merit all the time at the disposal of the governor.
But he would be better advised to prioritise these problems and, to start with, focus on finding solutions to the easier ones and those requiring relatively smaller amounts of funds (in view of the financial constraints in the country). Such an approach will have a positive impact and people will take him seriously as someone genuinely interested in resolving their problems, a person for whom they have been waiting for a long time.
Fata has become an ‘out of sight out of mind’ kind of place for those who matter in Islamabad. Even parliament has not bothered to discuss what ails this area. This lack of interest has contributed adversely to the spread of ills in the area of which corruption by far exceeds everything else.
This was beautifully explained by a federal minister in a seminar in Islamabad recently who gave the example of a political agent who had ‘bought’ his post for Rs26 crore. I leave it to the imagination of the readers to calculate how much money an official who ‘invested’ this amount for getting appointed would siphon off from government coffers as a return on his investment.
And all this under the so called eagle eye of the khakis who manage the minutest of things there. It leaves me wondering about their role.
The people in Fata have learnt one lesson over the years – not to expect any positive outcome from the promises made by the government as no one has really done anything for them in the past. Now instead of making vague promises as usual about the future, the new governor should make efforts to solve problems on the spot. That will restore the confidence of the people in the government and in him as a governor who wants to make sure that a fresh start is made.
Plans should be drawn up for long-term projects in all the seven tribal agencies to provide a proper means of livelihood for the unemployed youth. At the same time emphasis should be placed on short-term projects, which fall within his powers and do not need significant additional funding to start. He will be judged by his performance in the first few months and not by promises alone.
Sardar Mehtab has to deliver and deliver fast as visits to the tribal areas or photo sessions with tribal elders on the sprawling lawns of the Governor House in Peshawar alone will not do.
A modest beginning could be made by handing over areas already cleared by the security forces to the civil administration. The armed forces could move to nearby forts/camps, within easy reach, to be available for strike if required. That will help restore some of the lost authority of the civil administration and at the same time relieve armed forces personnel of the additional responsibility they have carried for a long time.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com