On August 14, 2011, President Asif Ali Zardari announced political reforms in FATA. On this historic occasion, one recalls the untiring efforts of Professor Mumtaz Ali Bangash, the pioneer of political and legal reforms in FATA. He spent his whole life struggling for the rights of the poor and downtrodden, the marginalised minorities and women in general and of FATA in particular. His PhD dissertation, a combination of passion and serious academic work, revolved around administrative reforms in FATA. He wrote three important analytical reports on FATA regulations for local governance in the tribal areas and FCR. He established the tribal development foundation (TDF) to propose appropriate legislative measures with regard to political administration in FATA. He was elected the convener of the FATA Reforms Committee for two years and also a member of the governor’s task force on FATA. Professor Mumtaz Ali Bangash, born on April 9, 1950, in the Shalozan village of the lofty Safed Koh Range, a leading light among the academia of this province, passed away on November 6, 2005 at the age of 55 years. Besides being a learned professor, an intellectual, reformist, democrat, humanist, great liberal thinker, competent administrator, humble and sincere friend and highly cultured tribal Pashtun, the late Mumtaz Bangash was a gifted person and possessed a sense of pro-people political acumen, a sophisticated sense of humour and love for art. Mumtaz Bangash grew up in his native village in a middle class, fairly conservative family setup with strict tribal traditions. As such his educational journey started from the hilly Shalozan village for his early schooling, travelling outward to Parachinar for higher schooling, to Kohat for college and to D I Khan for his university degree in Public Administration. His academic sojourn, however, culminated at this great seat of higher learning in the provincial metropolis — the University of Peshawar. His quest for knowledge exposed him to much wider reading material outside his academic field and learning through the internet and media. His interest though remained focused on subjects like political philosophy, literature, business and current political affairs at the tribal, national and international levels. The professional career of late Mumtaz Bangash started with his appointment as a lecturer at the Institute of Business Administration, Gomal University, D I Khan in July 1977. However, he joined the public administration department of the University of Peshawar in February 1982 as a lecturer and rose to assistant professorship in 1986, to associate professor in 1997 and finally to full fledged professor in February 2001. From February 2001 to June 2003, he served the Institute of Management Sciences (IMS) as its director but continued as a professor till his retirement in October 2005. He remained academically engaged with several other institutions such as the universities of Quetta, D I Khan, Multan, Lahore and Karachi, and IBA, USAID, DFID, GTZ and the World Bank, etc. The Late Professor Bangash was not just an academician, he also played an active role on campus in co-curricular activities such as being the president of PUTA in 1995 and elected member of the syndicate of the University of Peshawar. His session as the president of PUTA is still marked as one of the most successful years because they managed to promote the last batch of about 90 non-PhD university teachers to the next higher grades. As a visionary person, he proposed several academic legislations in various statutory bodies of the University of Peshawar such as academic council, syndicate and the senate. One of the most remarkable achievements of Dr Bangash was to revive the IMS at the University of Peshawar in 2000 after its initial takeover by the provincial government. Besides having such a towering personality, Mumtaz Bangash was a very dear friend and a thorough gentleman in every sense of the word. His family, friends and colleagues miss him and we all pray for his eternal peace. His efforts for reforms in FATA have finally brought partial fruit as the democratically elected coalition government, headed by PM Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari, has been able to create consensus on reform in FATA. The writers are freelance columnists