Hamstrung: FATA panel in search of efficient civil servants

FRC says it faces grave challenges in implementing the transformation plan

ISLAMABAD: The reform commission set up to transform the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into a hub of development is hamstrung by a lack of honest and committed officers, its head said on Thursday.

“The implementation of the reforms plan will not be possible in the absence of honest, efficient and committed officials,” Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, head of Fata Reform Commission (FRC), told The Express Tribune. Qureshi said he is frantically searching for “honest and dedicated officials” who can implement the plan effectively.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior official said that the FRC has flatly refused to be dependent on “financially corrupt and inefficient bureaucrats” in the execution of the reforms plan.

The first phase of the plan covering the reorganisation of the administrative structure in Fata has already become operational following its approval by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor (K-P) Sardar Mehtab Khan last month.

The panel, according to the FRC chief, has examined the worth of the senior officials of the Fata secretariat, governor’s secretariat, Fata development authority and Fata disaster management authority. To ensure the plan is successful, it is important to increase the administrative capacity of all officials.

Apart from the K-P governor, who exercises federal authority over Fata, the plan has the blessings of army executives, according to Qureshi a former chief secretary who, along with five other members of the FRC, have prepared a two-phase plan for the improvement of governance in the tribal regions.

The second part of the plan – which aims to upgrade the status of the tribal regions with constitutional readjustments – will come into effect after its approval by the National Security Council, he said.

The six-member reform panel appointed by the governor in May last year was entrusted with the task of preparing a 25-year strategic reforms programme for Fata. The commission was also authorised to formulate its plans into operational activities under the governor’s patronage.

Both plans were envisaged after comprehensive consultations with the members of the National Assembly and Senate from Fata, minister of states and frontier regions, ministry of interior and finance, army executives and inspector general of the frontier corps.

The FRC also obtained input from key political players within K-P and 15 groups of tribal elders, religious leaders, civil society groups, tribal lawyers, former bureaucrats and youth before finalisation of its recommendations early this year.

The most significant part of the second plan is to set up a governor’s council to be elected within the next two years.

“The FRC has conceived an idea of an elected governor’s council for the tribal regions,” Qureshi said, adding that the council will come into being within next two years and will act as a legislative body for Fata.

However, elected council of elders in all the seven agencies (districts) of Fata will take place within the next one year before the election of the governor’s council.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2015.