The uncertainty about the future of FATA is still very much there and many questions still remain to be answered .Why the hell is the government opposing holding of a referendum in FATA for ascertaining the will of the tribesmen as to their future ?Are they willing to merge their area with the KPK?Would they like it to be made a separate province and then merged in the KPK or after creation of a separate province of FATA it should remain attached with the federal government as is the case today ?
The Saffron minister has recently said there was no provision of a referendum on FATA in the constitution .He seems to forget that at the time of creation of Pakistan the founder of the nation had promised with the tribesmen that Pakistan would honour all the agreements which the Britishers had entered into with them and if any change was required to be made it would be made after consulting them .Can there be any better way of consulting them than to seek their opinion through the process of referendum?
Many Commissions and Committees have broached the issue of future of FATA during the past thirty years or so.Their recommendations contained in umpteen files lying in the archives of the interior ministry have gathered dust.For one reason or the other they were not acted upon.The experts believe that tinkering with the existing system prevalent in the tribal belt is easier said than done.Had it been easy to replace it with another system it would have been replaced long ago.
POSTSCRIPT:The ANP would be certainly poorer without Haji Adeel who kicked the bucket last week.He was loyal to Bacha Khan through and through.His father Hakim Jalil too was a confidante of Bacha Khan and a dyed-in-the-wool Congressite.
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