Mohammad Jamil
mjamil1938@hotmail.com
The National Assembly on Thursday passed a constitutional amendment bill clearing the way for the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Voting on each clause of the bill was concluded in the afternoon, a day after the parliamentary committee gave it the go ahead. 229 members voted in favour of the constitution amendment while one voted against it. People of FATA are rejoicing that they will be entitled to all those facilities that are available to the people in the rest of Pakistan. Secondly, they will get rid of the Frontier Crimes Regulation introduced by the British Raj in 1901. In 1947, the then Dominion of Pakistan added the clause that residents can be arrested without specifying the crime. The FCR permits collective punishment of family or tribe members for crimes of individuals. The amendment will extend the writ of Pakistani courts to its districts.
On Friday, the Upper House of the Parliament, the Senate also passed the bill with two-third majority, and it will need the signature of the president to be passed into law. The committee for FATA reforms had concluded that merger of FATA with KP was the best option, and the merger would have positive effects. It has to be mentioned that the committee report was assessed by civil and military leadership including the army chief. In fact, military has all along been persuading the government to mainstream FATA without losing any time, as detractors of Pakistan would use the deprivation of FATA residents to disturb peace which has been achieved with tremendous sacrifices. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) members had staged a walkout from the assembly when voting on clauses had started. Anyhow, the bill aims at changing the 150-year-old system in tribal areas.
In September 2016, the committee formed to decide the fate of the tribal areas had concluded that the option to merge the region with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was the only viable route to mainstream the areas. A five-year plan was devised for this purpose. The 51-page report of the FATA committee submitted to the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stated that without reforms, the Army may have to stay in FATA for an indefinite period, thus affecting strategic military balance on the Eastern front. It was proposed that in order to sustain the successes achieved by the military, law enforcement agencies and political administrations, legal and security reforms were essential. Importantly, it was recommended that the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high court be extended to the tribal areas by amending Article 247 and other relevant laws replacing the FCR.
After passage of the FATA-KP merger bill, political parties would reach the voters, circulate their manifestos and create political awareness among the residents. The political leaders of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were allowed to join political parties with the extension of political parties order in 2011 for the first time in its history. Had they been part of mainstream politics, it would not have been possible for the extremists’ outfits to aid or abet foreign militants to create problems for Pakistan. Of Course, development in FATA should be undertaken on war footing. The US had taken the responsibility to set up industrial units in FATA and earthquake-hit areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as part of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones. But, the project was abandoned by the US, as after withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan it lost interest in the project.
The opponents of mainstreaming FATA, and those outfits like PTM would not be able to use grievances of the FATA people. Army has been sincerely making efforts to uplift the life of masses in Pashtun Tribal belt, and the people of Federally Administrated Areas (FATA) are witness to the fact that Pakistan Army has contributed a great deal towards nation-building both in kinetic and non-kinetic realms. Inter alia, the socio-economic spheres such as education, health, communication and telephony, national logistics, infrastructural development, and disaster management including rescue, relief and rehabilitation activities in the aftermath of natural calamities are but a few worth noting. Manzoor Pashteen, whose name popped-up during demonstration against extra-Judicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud had been trying to bring army into disrepute, alleging that army was falsely making tall claims of progress in South Waziristan.
The question is who is funding the PTM? Pashteen’s supporters traveled to Swat on 29th April in at least 270 vehicles, mostly coasters, counted at Dargai check post located near the Dargai fort. Local politicians claimed that they had told the administration to not let outsiders enter Swat (enjoying peace and tourism) in such large numbers from outside, but their protests were not given importance. Manzoor Pashteen and others including Mohsin Dawar spoke about extrajudicial killings, missing persons and mistreatment of Pashtoons in Pakistan. Strong words were uttered against army which itself has a huge component of Pashtoons. Rally was mostly a function of the support it had from Mehmood Khan Achakzai’s Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party” (PkMAP) whose local leader, Khurshid Kakajee, Senator Usman Kakar and KP President, Mukhtar Yousafzai also addressed the crowds. Anyhow, PTM is losing stream because people have starting understanding its shenanigans.
