Daily Times

There seems to be a broad based consensus in all the major political parties of Pakistan on the issue of massive legal reforms in FATA. The consensus is that the Political Parties Act should be implemented in FATA, all established human rights be accorded to the people of FATA and the FCR be abolished or there be massive amendments to it to make it concur with human rights. The parties that hold this position include the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAR), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and the People’s Party (Sherpao). The consensus was expressed in a conference about legal reforms in FATA by the PPP-linked Shaheed Bhutto Foundation in Peshawar in October 2009. On August 14, 2009, only a few months before the conference, President Zardari announced the promulgation of the Political Parties Act in FATA.

The president’s announcement, despite the political backing of the parties, has never been implemented to date despite the fact that the political parties continue to demand legal reforms in FATA. There seems no other explanation for the lack of implementation of the presidential order other than the de facto control of the area by the intelligence agencies of Pakistan to use it for strategic objectives in complete disregard of human rights and development in the area.

Now in the context of the ongoing debate in Pakistan over the formation of new provinces in the federation, Mr Afrasiab Khattak, the ANP leader, has suggested that representation be given in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to FATA. The suggestion is in line with the long-standing ANP demand that FATA be included in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This demand makes a lot of sense in terms of the socio-cultural and geographic affinity with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All areas in FATA are much more integrated in terms of geography, culture, tribal links, familial ties, business connections and so on with the adjacent areas in Pakhtunkhwa than among themselves. For example, Dir is more integrated with Bajaur and Mohmand than Waziristan or Kurram, and Waziristan is more integrated with Bannu and Tank than with Charsadda or Nowshera and so on.

Some FATA parliamentarians have voiced their opposition to the ANP suggestion that FATA be given representation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly. For example, Kamran Khan, an MNA from North Waziristan, recently said on a private channel’s programme that FATA should be made a separate province instead of its incorporation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because there were many differences between the two. The differences, according to him, are the following: There is no police and judiciary system in FATA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is more developed than FATA and FATA is facing exceptional circumstances in terms of terrorism.

It is true that there are some voices in FATA that demand a separate FATA province. However, one has to be alarmed when the demand for a separate FATA province comes from FATA parliamentarians. The reason is the conduct of the past as well as current FATA parliamentarians. History tells us that FATA parliamentarians have always aligned themselves with the government of Pakistan and have never showed any dissent. This makes their representativeness questionable from the perspective of the well being of the tribal people. Similarly, the current FATA parliamentarians cannot be trusted to speak with a free will given the fact that their area is under de facto control of the intelligence agencies of Pakistan and their proxies — the militants. The parliamentarians probably could never have been elected without having made deals with the militant commanders in their area. This also suggests that their non-party based election, as opposed to the rest of Pakistan, was not held in a free and fair environment. Journalist Aqil Yousafzai has beautifully elaborated in his Urdu book, Operation Natamam (endless operation), that FATA parliamentarians take dictates from militant commanders in their area and are practically hostage to them. Under Taliban pressure, the parliamentarians raise their voices on the floor of the National Assembly or Senate and media outlets to oppose the demands for military operations against the militants in FATA.

The lack of development and negligible police and judiciary system in FATA that Mr Kamran Khan is referring to are due to the region’s legal isolation from the rest of Pakistan. The ANP, together with other political parties of Pakistan, are demanding an end to the isolation. The special circumstances related to terrorism that Kamran Khan pointed at are precisely what are making the ANP more relevant to FATA than many other parties in the country. The ANP has always been opposed to the root cause of the current terrorism in Pakistan — the abuse of religion for strategic use. The party also opposed the so-called Afghan jihad. It has been urging the Pakistan Army to conduct targeted military operations against the Taliban and al Qaeda since 2002, the time when the army was reluctant to do so. Today the party extends political support to all targeted army operations against the Taliban. The ANP took a tough stance on militancy in Swat, although it temporarily succumbed to pressure tactics when it signed the peace deal with the Swati militants after suicide bombers were sent to its leadership. The ANP thus has a substantial role in freeing Swat from the clutches of the militants and has heavily scarified for its stance when hundreds of its workers were target killed, especially in Swat.

When was the last time the FATA parliamentarians took such a tough stance as the ANP has done on the issue of terrorism? Leave aside the issue of their stance on terrorism, what have FATA parliamentarians done to reduce the suffering of thousands of people from FATA who are IDPs? I have yet to meet any tribal people who mention any contribution by FATA parliamentarians to reduce the sufferings of the IDPs.

There may have been charges against the ANP in terms of bad governance, a problem of all Pakistan. But when it comes to its stance on terrorism in FATA, the ANP stands on a higher ‘moral’ ground than the FATA parliamentarians. Afrasiab Khattak’s suggestion for FATA representation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly should also be seen in the context of this moral ground. As far as FATA parliamentarians are concerned, they should only be taken seriously after they have shown some evidence that they have the will to take on the militants in their areas.

The writer is a PhD Research Fellow with the University of Oslo and author of the book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban