Wolves in sheep’s clothing

One of the more pernicious of the colonial legacies is the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) that has been used as a very big stick with which to beat the people of the tribal areas. There have been numerous attempts to replace or reform them over the years, and the latest proposed revision takes nobody anywhere. Attempts to merge Fata with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have been similarly fraught and the two are closely linked. The government has now drafted what are being called the Fata Interim Governance Regulation, 2018, which is allegedly to apply in Fata until the merger with K-P “within a time frame of two years”. The government is hoping to get the president to sign this egregious document into law before the dissolution of the current dispensation.

This newspaper has had sight of the draft to go to the president for approval and aside the fact that the FCR are on the face of it no more, there is not much to like. The wolf comes snappily dressed in a 20-page document that is said to ensure “administration of justice, maintenance of peace and good governance” in Fata which sounds fine. Unpacking the document we find that it is little more than a change of nameplates on office doors and retitling of job descriptions. The sometimes tyrannical political agents are to become deputy commissioners. Their assistant commissioners are going to have magisterial powers. Even worse is the retention of collective punishment if people of a particular village are deemed less than cooperative in assisting with the solution of a crime. The assistant commissioner can impose a collective fine. Banishment — almost medieval in concept — is also there as is the archaic term “a man who cannot give a satisfactory account of himself”. The jirga remains as well and nobody can establish a new village or build a walled enclosure without the DC’s permission. This is a cheap, shabby and shameful document that needs to be shredded. Today. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2018.

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