Though on paper the tribal area formerly billed as FATA stands merged with the KPK, on ground a lot is still to be done for translating into a reality the merger decision. For instance, there is a lot of opposition among the tribesmen living in the tribal area about the introduction of police in their area. An half-hearted attempt has been made by the KPK police to set up police posts at some points in the tribal belt but it foundered on the obduracy of the tribesmen. The very sight of policemen in uniform is like a red rag to the bull to the tribals. Decisions made in post-haste without preparing ground for it and without taking the necessary stakeholders into confidence are bound to fail. One doesn’t understand what was the hurry in railroading decision to finish the old special status of the former FATA?Granted that some provisions within the FCR were a bit harsh but they had already been taken care of by the setting up of judicial tribunals at the provincial level headed by the Law secretary of the KPK who belonged to the judiciary. An appellate forum had thus been provided to the tribesmen aggrieved by the invocation of Section 40 FCR by the political agent against them to the entire satisfaction of the rank and file tribesmen.
No body in the corridors of power seems to have given a serious thought to the fact that a majority of tribesmen consider their riwaji criminal justice system much better than the one in vogue in the revenue districts which they consider to be costly, extremely time consuming and rotten to the core with corruption. They say they were quite content with their traditional judicial system.
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