- KP-FATA union plan runs into snags
The fate of tribal people has been uncertain since 2015 when FATA reforms committee was first set up, its findings submitted to the PM in 2016, and approved in March 2017. Swift parliamentary approval would have been a notable achievement for the government in an otherwise barren term. But the triumph never materialised, being vehemently opposed by two key government allies, the JUI-F and PkMAP, whose moral, material and now also ‘ideological’ support is vital to long-beleaguered PML-N, which in deference removed the FATA Reform Bill overnight from National Assembly agenda on December 11 by a sleight of hand tactic, with the opposition PTI, PPP, JI and QWP staging walkouts in protest, which continue since. The Bill was not tabled yesterday too. The minority view, which also includes the Tribal Maliks-dominated jirga council rejects merger on various grounds, namely seeking the consent of the local people, going for a separate province, retaining the jirga system and rewaj, or that FATA merger would rile the Afghan government because of its Durand Line misconceptions.
This stalemate is most unfair to the aspirations of the vast majority of the tribal people, who since 1947, are denied political, economic, legal and security mainstreaming, kept deprived and under-developed for the sake of a few but powerful vested interests wishing to maintain the status quo for their continued financial and political good health. It is inconceivable that any rational person would prefer the indiscriminate British era Frontier Crimes Regulation or pay taxes without representation based on adult franchise, when he can seek and enjoy the umbrella of the regular courts for redress of any grievance and sit in the country’s assemblies like a normal citizen of settled areas. And it is not that the FATA residents are the ‘wild men’ of yore, there has been significant progress in recent years, with generals, ambassadors and other senior bureaucrats originating from the region. Unfortunately, even a meeting of the PM and COAS with the JUI-F chief has proved fruitless. But indefinite evasions and lame excuses will be counter-productive, the people of FATA deserve better. Merger remains the only workable and viable option.
