Daily Times

According to Article 247 (3) of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, “No act of majlis-e-shura (parliament) shall apply to any Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) or to any part thereof, unless the president so directs.” This is absurd, is it not? But wait! The thing called FATA is a package of absurdities. FATA comprises of seven tribal agencies and six frontier regions. Each of these units elects a member to Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate. However, as cited above, the laws made by parliament do not apply to FATA! So, the people of FATA have to vote for legislators but the legislation made by their legislators does not apply to them.
Time and events have proved that this absurdity has got to come to an end. The games played in FATA in order to control the throne of Kabul have failed, with disastrous blowback. Frankenstein’s monster seeks to eliminate its creator. How do we defeat it? Nothing less than the provision of a civilised life for the people of FATA will suffice to defeat this monster. In a recent informal chat, an official of the ‘state’ confided to me that they were considering holding a referendum in FATA to find out which of the following three options they thought was best for them: a) FATA’s merger in the province of Pakhtunkhwa, b) making FATA a separate province and c) sticking with the status quo.
As stated above, the third option must be taken out of the agenda for it has been tested and it has given birth to Frankenstein’s monster. Option a) and b) can be considered. We need to be cognizant of the fact that giving one’s opinion on such a complex issue as the future status of FATA is not an easy job. This is a complex issue involving legal, social, cultural, economic and political intricacies, and the common man in FATA cannot be expected to give an informed verdict on the issue. Therefore the more reasonable strategy will be one in which the Pashtun leaders from the Awami National Party (ANP), the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), tribal elders from each agency and civil society organisations rooted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA are taken on board, tasked with brainstorming on the subject and coming up with their own recommendations.
The ANP and PkMAP have a clear stance on the issue. They want FATA, Pashtun areas in Balochistan and the present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to be merged into a single province. This seems to be the more reasonable option for it will address their long held complaint that Islamabad follows towards them the policy of divide and rule.
The second best option (but less popular among Pashtuns by and large) will be that of giving FATA the status of a fully-fledged province. This is the second best option, not the first because the bulk of Pashtuns — those represented by the ANP and PkMAP — want its merger into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There can be no justification for keeping the Pashtuns divided. However, if the state wants it that way, in order to browbeat the Pashtun nationalist forces (which is not a wise thing to do), FATA can be given the status of a separate province. However, this needs to be done through a constitutional amendment rather than through an act of parliament. A thing similar to what happened to Gilgit-Baltistan, which was made a ‘province’ through an ordinance, will not do. The merger of FATA into the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or, to a lesser extent, making it a separate province, coupled with a generous investment in its education, physical infrastructure, health and so on has the potential to help solve all the complex issues in the region.
To be sure, Pashtun-inhabited areas in Pakistan have to be made a single province sooner or later. This is what logic dictates. And full provincial autonomy, with a minimum number of subjects in Islamabad, has also got to be granted one day. Therefore, the present is the right time for all political parties to sit together, chalk out a plan for mainstreaming FATA with full provincial autonomy, making it into a constitutional amendment package and solving the problem once and for all so that the country is put onto the path of economic development and social change. The more these problems linger on, the more they will weaken the federation, with potentially disastrous consequences.

The writer is a team leader at Salook Research, Resource and Training Centre, Islamabad. He can be contacted at ilyasakbarkhan@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @ilyasakbarkhan