The future of FATA

Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a legacy of Pakistan’s colonial past and are decades overdue for reform

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are a legacy of Pakistan’s colonial past and are decades overdue for reform. Innumerable promises have been made to the effect that reform was on the horizon, and most of them remain unfulfilled. The tribal areas remain one of the least developed and underprivileged of all the lands under the wing of the federal government, and years of neglect have allowed extremism to take hold in parts of Fata, with results that are evident in the casualty figures coming out of Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Now, another attempt at reform is in the offing, but it appears flawed from the outset.

The prime minister has formed a special committee to make recommendations for Fata reform via the convention of jirgas made up of tribal elders in order to determine the status of the region. The committee has five members, none of them hailing from Fata, and will initially tackle two of the seven tribal agencies, and will visit them “before December 31”. There is already a disconnect. At least two senators from Fata say they were unaware of the formation of the committee and had not been informed or consulted, an oversight unlikely to foster future productivity, never mind trust.

None of the three options being considered is easy. The creation of a new province from the seven agencies, a merging with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) or thirdly administration by K-P as ‘PATA’ — an arrangement that may probably be doomed from the outset was it ever to become a reality. The committee is apparently going to “consult with all stakeholders”, but has fallen at the first hurdle in that respect, and given the very divided nature of the seven agencies, any sort of consensus as to future shape and administration is going to be hard to achieve. Whatever comes out of the work of the committee has to be a reflection of the will of the diverse peoples of Fata, and anything less will be yet another broken promise and seen as yet another betrayal — and clearly there needs to be better communication even before the committee sets foot outside the federal capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.