K-P offers up plan to absorb FATA departments
Move is attempt to speed along stalled provincial merger
PHOTO COURTESY: MAJEED BABAR
PESHAWAR:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government is taking steps towards the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with K-P – proposing plans to dissolve or absorb the existing FATA Secretariat, and mulling options on the role of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and the future of policing in the tribal belt.
An official with firsthand knowledge of the proposed plan told The Express Tribune that since the reforms had been stalled for some time now, K-P had taken the initiative to break the deadlock. “This included a change in the structure of the Fata secretariat on an immediate basis,” he said.
The current structure of the Fata secretariat includes six departments functioning under an additional chief secretary (ACS). The K-P government wants to leave finance, planning and development, and law and order as is, while merging the other three into K-P.
Historic step: Lawmakers agree to merge FATA with K-P
A similar structure existed before 2007 when the federal government had issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) under which the present structure of the FATA secretariat was framed. Till 2000, the administrative departments, line departments and directorates of the provincial government maintained separate Fata sections to operate in the region. In 2002, the governor’s secretariat, as it was known at the time, moved all the Fata sections of different line departments and directorates of the provincial government to the secretariat.
A dual secretary management system was adopted, with the secretary to governor declared as the administrative secretary, while the security secretary was made responsible for Law and Order.
But the system was destined for failure due to its lack of rules and business. In 2006, then-president Musharraf appointed Sahibzada Imtiaz as head of a commission which formulated much of the current structure of the Fata Secretariat. The original structure included four departments, which was expanded on later.
“Along with the ACS, the chief operating officer (COO) and the chief executive of the Fata Development Authority will look over the transition period,” the source said while explaining that three departments were left untouched in the proposed plan because there were infrastructure requirements for extending the relevant K-P departments into Fata, particularly courts and police stations.
Sami-led jirga demands FATA merger with K-P
However, the official said that a law like a Fata regulation with “contours” like the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) was suggested for the interim period with right to appeal “because of the absence of buildings and departments required for the smooth operation of the regular justice system” till a complete merger.
FC issue
There are 547 Frontier Constabulary platoons, according to statistics provided to the Senate of Pakistan, the total strength of the force is approximately 26,000, and roughly 10,000 of them are deployed outside the province at any given time.
It has been a consistent demand of the K-P government that the FC troops are returned to the province, but little has been done in this regard.
Since FC’s primary role is to act as a protective force between K-P and Fata in the buffer zone, what happens to it after the planned merger is a hot topic. The provincial government has proposed allowing FC officials deployed outside the province to be absorbed by the respective provincial governments of their current deployment locations, the official said.
Policing
Policing in the tribal belt has been the domain of the Khasadar force and the Levies. There are a total of 17,965 Khasadars in Fata, along with 11,789 sanctioned levies posts. Both are under the direct command of the political administration, but the levies are comparatively better trained than the Khasadar, who are inducted on a relation or hereditary basis. The proposal aims at recruiting one policeman for every two Khasadars, which would put the final figure at around 9,000 policemen, said the official.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government is taking steps towards the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with K-P – proposing plans to dissolve or absorb the existing FATA Secretariat, and mulling options on the role of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and the future of policing in the tribal belt.
An official with firsthand knowledge of the proposed plan told The Express Tribune that since the reforms had been stalled for some time now, K-P had taken the initiative to break the deadlock. “This included a change in the structure of the Fata secretariat on an immediate basis,” he said.
The current structure of the Fata secretariat includes six departments functioning under an additional chief secretary (ACS). The K-P government wants to leave finance, planning and development, and law and order as is, while merging the other three into K-P.
Historic step: Lawmakers agree to merge FATA with K-P
A similar structure existed before 2007 when the federal government had issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) under which the present structure of the FATA secretariat was framed. Till 2000, the administrative departments, line departments and directorates of the provincial government maintained separate Fata sections to operate in the region. In 2002, the governor’s secretariat, as it was known at the time, moved all the Fata sections of different line departments and directorates of the provincial government to the secretariat.
A dual secretary management system was adopted, with the secretary to governor declared as the administrative secretary, while the security secretary was made responsible for Law and Order.
But the system was destined for failure due to its lack of rules and business. In 2006, then-president Musharraf appointed Sahibzada Imtiaz as head of a commission which formulated much of the current structure of the Fata Secretariat. The original structure included four departments, which was expanded on later.
“Along with the ACS, the chief operating officer (COO) and the chief executive of the Fata Development Authority will look over the transition period,” the source said while explaining that three departments were left untouched in the proposed plan because there were infrastructure requirements for extending the relevant K-P departments into Fata, particularly courts and police stations.
Sami-led jirga demands FATA merger with K-P
However, the official said that a law like a Fata regulation with “contours” like the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) was suggested for the interim period with right to appeal “because of the absence of buildings and departments required for the smooth operation of the regular justice system” till a complete merger.
FC issue
There are 547 Frontier Constabulary platoons, according to statistics provided to the Senate of Pakistan, the total strength of the force is approximately 26,000, and roughly 10,000 of them are deployed outside the province at any given time.
It has been a consistent demand of the K-P government that the FC troops are returned to the province, but little has been done in this regard.
Since FC’s primary role is to act as a protective force between K-P and Fata in the buffer zone, what happens to it after the planned merger is a hot topic. The provincial government has proposed allowing FC officials deployed outside the province to be absorbed by the respective provincial governments of their current deployment locations, the official said.
Policing
Policing in the tribal belt has been the domain of the Khasadar force and the Levies. There are a total of 17,965 Khasadars in Fata, along with 11,789 sanctioned levies posts. Both are under the direct command of the political administration, but the levies are comparatively better trained than the Khasadar, who are inducted on a relation or hereditary basis. The proposal aims at recruiting one policeman for every two Khasadars, which would put the final figure at around 9,000 policemen, said the official.