Reforming tribal areas: Governor calls for strategic overview of FATA

Proposes six-member commission to help improve lives of tribesmen.

PESHAWAR:

Vying to improve living conditions in the conflict-hit tribal areas, Governor Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi has ordered that a Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Reforms Commission (FRC) be established to set a 25-year strategic programme for the region.

According to a statement issued from the governor’s office, the six-member commission, including some former bureaucrats, will submit reform initiatives to the governor which, once approved, will result in the committee’s transformation into the FATA Performance Management Unit. The task of the unit will be to supervise and monitor the work of agencies carrying out the reform initiatives.

FRC will play the role of an apex body that will be exclusively responsible to frame the short, medium and long-term reforms in order to achieve the objectives, the statement read.

The terms of references of the reforms commission include a review of the Frontier Crimes Regulation as well as changing the governance paradigm where FRC will prepare integrated as well as economic development strategies for the tribal areas.

The notification stated that FRC will focus on the needs of the community and review pro-investment policies in various sectors, including oil, gas, power, dams and minerals, to improve tribesmen’s quality of lives.

The commission has also been directed to introduce e-governance as well as a robust accountability process in the financial management of the tribal areas. A one-window facilitation centre for various services will be made with the assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority in the tribal areas.

The governor’s plan includes the introduction of a set-up based on the Management Information System to reform trade and immigration system. The plan also includes reviewing border management in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.

Last week, the governor sought ideas from civil society on how to bring revolutionary changes to the affairs of the tribal areas. Abbasi was quoted as saying that he plans to bring widespread changes in Fata by introducing a policy on sensitising all stakeholders, specifically the centre, on the on-ground situation in the tribal region. Abbasi hails from Abbottabad and is also a former chief minister of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2014.