Reforming FATA

One of the major initiatives taken by the Quaid-e-Azam soon after independence was the withdrawal of troops from Fata. Instead of building on this historic announcement to mainstream the tribal people and territories into the national life, the governments that followed made such a mess that the troops have had to return to clean it up. We are back to square one, and a committee on Fata reform has come up with another transition programme. In a series of columns in November 2012, “How the West was Lost,” this writer highlighted the thinking of the past planners about the development of Fata. The first five-year plan (1955-60), arguably the first and, unfortunately, the last home-grown plan, had all the right ideas for the settled territories and the provinces. In the case of Fata, however, the plan almost concluded that the area was too poor to develop and proposed settling some of the tribal people in the upcoming Thal development area in Punjab. For those left behind, the Jirga system run by the maliks was described as democratic enough and the political agents good enough to look after tribal people’s welfare within this framework, besides watching government’s interest. This political and administrative structure was expected to gradually increase political stability and socioeconomic contact with the rest of the country. A colonial project was thus expected to deliver national dreams.

The report of the latest committee suffers from the same exceptionalism and evolutionism. Using new terms for old, like riwaj for FCR, and by throwing up all kinds of options for future political status, it once again skirts the fringes of the issue. The hidden assumption here is that unless the tribesmen cease to be tribesman, not much can be done for their economic welfare and political development. The same is not said for the Punjabis or Sindhis, although half of their population i.e., women, also suffers from the machinations of their respective versions of riwaj.

It seems that the people of Fata figure nowhere. How they organise their economic and social life should be for them to decide. The role of the federal government is to provide them a framework to do that. And the framework must not be any different from the rest of the country. It should avoid the future tense and muster the political will to immediately amend the Constitution to declare Fata as a province like any other. There will thus be no need for any other reform, as the Constitution fully lays down the rights and the responsibilities of a province. The legislative powers and the process, the administrative arrangements, the fiscal powers and formula-based share in the federal divisible pool of resources are laid down in their minute details in the relevant chapters of the Constitution. The federal government has the right to appoint a governor, who can be given some special powers in the interim to oversee the process of becoming a full-bodied province. Let the Elections Commission hold elections and let the elected assembly form a government to take charge of the affairs of the new province. Let this assembly decide the name of the province, the seat of the provincial government and the administrative nomenclature. It should be the prerogative of this assembly to seek mutually beneficial arrangements with the adjoining provinces.

Idealistic? When Balochistan was belatedly recognised as a province, there were many problems. A good number are still there. Quite a few are federally created. These too will be resolved as democracy takes roots. The new province for the tribal people will have similar problems. But that is no argument to deny them their democratic rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2016.

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