There are several misunderstandings among the rest of the Pakistanis regarding FATA, which is not a ‘lawless’ tribal region as it is assumed; rather the laws under the FCR there are harsher than anywhere else in the country.
It is due to the system being under the political agents (PAs) that the region could not be developed. These PAs, who are junior officials, tend to misuse their powers and act as if they were kings and they bother little about the development projects there.
This was stated by former ambassador Ayaz Wazir here on Thursday at a public talk organised by The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) on “FATA its Problems and Solutions”.
In his presentation on the subject, Wazir pointed out the demographic and geographical details of FATA, noting that it was generally agreed that there were over 7 million residents of the region, which had historically been backward and poverty-ridden.
“This situation did not change even after 1947 and there remained a purposeful neglect of FATA. Indeed, the notorious Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) introduced in 1901 still exists and consequently the region has remained politically and economically backward and not integrated with the rest of Pakistan”, he told the gathering.
He said that despite recent amendments in the FCR laws, a lot more was needed to be done. “Moreover, they (laws) are eyewash to people, who are aware of government regulations that allow armed forces to take any action against suspected individuals without any legal reasoning. This has, instead, brought in a harsher regime to replace the amendments to the FCR,” he observed.
He said it was unfortunate that not even a senior leader of Pakistan had bothered to visit the areas and see the people of the region themselves.
The political leadership has been completely absent, and under the FCR, all powers to bring any change lie with the president of the country, he said, adding that the recent history of FATA saw many changes coming in with two invasions–the Soviets’, and more recently with the Americans’.
Indeed, he said, it was only after 2003 when the Pakistani forces went to FATA that the areas started to experience unrest.
Discussing the socio-economic backwardness of the agencies in FATA, Wazir stressed the need to empower the locals. He said the system of political agents had harmed the region tremendously since it had led to an unchecked corruption and wastage of resources, without any consultation or involvement of the people of FATA in the process. He concluded his talk by recommending short-term and long-term solutions to the problems in FATA.
The short-term solutions include the rehabilitation and compensation of internally displaced people, opening of roads, and replacement of the army operation with civil society participation and the long-term political and economic empowerment of the people.
Earlier the ISSI Director General Ashraf Jehangir Qazi welcomed the speaker. He stressed that since Pakistan was going through a transformative phase and FATA was under immense focus, the security paradigm should be replaced by a development paradigm.
