They would not tolerate interference by anyone in their routine life
NORTH WAZIRISTAN AGENCY: Since the launch of operation Zarb-e-Azb, the federal government is thinking about merging Fata with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It is one of the 20 points of the National Action Plan (NAP) that was crafted after the brutal terrorist attack on Army Public School in Peshawar Cantt on December 16, 2014. Political leadership collectively agreed on some points in the shape of NAP.
Reforming the legal and administrative system of Fata and mainstreaming it with rest of the country is a totally different issue than its merger with K-P. No one has this mandate, including the Commitee on Fata Reforms, which does not have any member from Fata nor so-called elected representatives such as members of the National Assembly and senators. Fata joined Pakistan at the request of its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, when both Jawaharlal Nehru and he visited the area before the 1946 elections. Nehru was discouraged in Razmak by tribals and they decided to join Pakistan but this decision was with certain conditions that their culture and traditions would remain intact. They would not tolerate interference by anyone in their routine life. In other words, they ensured some concessions for themselves while negotiating to join any of the dominions. In light of those concessions, the founder of Pakistan ordered general withdrawal of forces from these areas. Unilaterally merging these areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will further create issues for the marginalised tribals, who are already unhappy with the present dispensation meted out to them by the motherland.
The only solution is to get them involved in this process through a long-term engagement process. A separate provincial status on analogy of Gilgit-Baltistan should be given to Fata. G-B has an area of approximately 28,000 square kilometres (sq km) while Fata has 27,220 sq km. Similarly, Azad Kashmir has a total area of 12,000 sq km approximately. Both, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have separate statuses on the pattern of federal units. Fata can sustain as a separate federal unit and has all the potential.
The system in K-P is more exploitative, dominated by a few central districts of Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda. They have kept the southern districts of Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu and Karak extremely underdeveloped. These areas have been in K-P since Partition but the fiscal and development funds are perfectly dominated by those few central districts. Fata, if merged with K-P, will plunge into extreme negligence and lack of focus that will exacerbate the tumultuous situation in the future where international actors will further exploit them.
Riaz Dawar
North Waziristan Agency
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2017.
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