FATA: How to tame Pakistan’s ‘wild western frontier’
The government’s “undemocratic” mindset was blamed for the situation in tribal areas at a conference on the Emerging Security Situation in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Tuesday.
The roundtable was organised as part of the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) at Forman Christian College University in collaboration with the Department of Public Policy and Governance.
The discussion featured Dr Rasul Bux Rais, professor of political science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences; journalist Ejaz Haider; Dr Saeed Shafqat, head of the department of Public Policy and Governance at FC College; and Dr Ijaz Khan, chairman of Peshawar University’s Department of International Relations.
In his introduction, Dr Khan focused on the administrative history of Fata. He said that the areas were designated as Fata by the British Raj to deal with ‘the wild frontier’.
He said that the recent revisions to the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) had not brought about a significant change in the region but expressed hope that opening it to political activities will have a positive influence. “The main hurdle is the mindset of those in power,” he said. Dr Khan said that Pakistan’s policy vis-a-vis Fata was to treat it as a “rental space,” which could be used in whatever way the renters wanted.
Ejaz Haider, complained of a dearth of reliable information relating to Fata, said that terrorist organisations had inculcated the perception that the state is not “Islamic enough”, which had fanned extremism. Haider stated that the confrontational relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, too, has contributed greatly to the marginalising of Fata. This, he said, had led to space being created for multi-state interference in the Tribal Areas.
Professor Rasul Bux Rais said that Fata had been impacted by colonialism, the Cold War and Pak-Afghan relations. Rais said that though the British Raj was responsible for the geography of the Tribal Areas, the Cold War had the deepest influence on the region.
“Western powers and their interests resulted in the shift of power towards religious extremist organisations,” he said. With the import of religious extremists to Fata from Saudi Arabia, parts of Central Asia and Africa, the situation worsened, he said. Rais also blamed the “drug economy” for contributing to the destabilisation of the region.
He emphasised the importance of reforms in Fata and said that all the legitimate and illegitimate actors needed to be identified and brought to the table so that the region’s problems can be addressed.
The event was part of the second phase of the Communities for Change (CFC) project in Pakistan. The British High Commission and Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany are jointly sponsoring the project.
The CFC project aims at empowering communities from the tribal areas (residents and diaspora) to better understand local and regional governance issues, and to create a momentum for change.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 30th, 2011.
COMMENTS (8)
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@The Flying Object: The worst thing to do is to heed at your suggestions and once again turn that area in to a jungle where every criminal in this world could take a refuge whenever they liked ... Had we abolish this tribal culture before no one would have courage to cross Duran Line back & forth just to be involved in criminal activities. We have to fence & seal it to stop all these unlawful activities. Afghanistan is land lock country and we don't need worry about friendly governments there as they will be dependent upon us for everything. Regarding your so called invisible cloak called ghairat, Where is this so called ghairat when people show their manhood by beating their weak wives, When our own brothers are roofless and sleeping on road sides and when our own children as young as 5 are begging on street in scorching heat of June without shoes or proper clothes while our children are roaming in air conditioned cars. Or when some savages are denying education to our children by blowing up their schools... Where was this so called ghairat when some barbarians were beating a girl in the markets of Mingora ... Where was this ghairat when we surrendered in 1971 or when a visiting cricket team who were our guests got attacked .. or where is this ghairat when every now and then we have to beg for loans and charities from USA, UK, and from Gulf to Japan? but no one would give tax ... Please shove this ghairat where the sun never shines and instead start using your brain instead to work towards betterment of humanity and country.
Allow them share in resources they own and accept them as equal citizens. Result: They won't look at others or resort to unlawful busninesses/acts for livelihood and have something to lose if they don't behave responsibly.
The only way to resolve the political, social and admisntrative challenges of FATA is to make it either a separate province or merge with the KPK province, in order to bring the region and its people to the mainstream. Ignoring the problem is a shortsighted approach, we have already ignored this issue for more than 60 years, as a result Pakistan and the world in general are paying the price. For effectively removing the existential threat to Pakistan and various bomb attempts in the world capitals, we must change the status quo in the FATA. This change has to be meaning ful and massive, as the time for small measures has been lost. No more band aid solution acceptable.
Munir Ahmad Saeed, Canberra Australia
FATA has been deliberately neglected since the beginning, resulting in it quickly becoming a haven for fugitives, smugglers, car jackers and criminals. The arrival of Militants is only the natural evolution of the area.
FATA has be brought under control via deployment of army and local forces and then developed. The prescription by "The Flying Object" person is a myth about FATA.
And the solutions are???
Stop the policy of using civilians to wage proxy wars.
The best thing is to leave the tribal areas to the tribals. They have lived like that for centuries and never caused trouble for the country. Instead when we never had to deploy so much army on our westren borders before. Now see what we have done; made Afghanis our enemy, India is already there, Iran has had good relations with India than it had with us, and on top of that we have turned our own people against us. And we've destroyed everything for our country.
So much for this war on terror.
Get out of it; May be the history can remember us as a ghairat-mand nation.