Daily Times

The FATA merger will go ahead. Just not on this government’s watch. This was largely to be expected. After all, the timetable to have the tribal areas fully incorporated into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was, from the beginning, rather ambitious. Indeed, if this were to go ahead as originally scheduled — the deal would have to be signed, sealed and delivered before the month’s end. For that is when the ruling PMLN’s tenure expires.

Naturally not everyone is happy about this. The usual suspects are JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PkMAP leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai. That both gentlemen head parties that are allied with the PMLN at the Centre have prompted suspicions in certain quarters that the incumbent government is merely playing for time. That it remains unwilling to risk jeopardising much-needed support electoral support with polls being just weeks away.

This is unlikely.

After all, the Centre has demonstrated its continued commitment to the merger. It is set to officially submit the FATA Reforms Bill to the National Assembly, before the latter completes its term. Such parliamentary cover is essential to setting in stone the consensus reached by the main opposition parties. The Bill also outlines increased representation for FATA lawmakers; boosting seat numbers to 147 from 126. At the provincial level, this means 117 seats up from 99. Whereas FATA’s 12 National Assembly seats will take KP’s presence in the Lower house to 60, up from 48.

Yet while there is no going back, this does not mean that the JUI-F and PkMAP will accept the merger without creating a ruckus. Both have been vehemently opposed to it right from the start; preferring to push for a separate province for the whole of the tribal areas. And while they are keen to stress that this reflects the will of the locals, boasting that party representatives go out and about and talk to people, neither has ever floated the possibility of a referendum to settle the self-determination question once and for all. Instead, members from both parties have, in the past, suggested that since no woman in FATA can dare step outside the home without her husband’s permission — those who have expressed interest in the merger have been co-opted by a foreign-driven agenda. Yet all this does is to urgently remind stakeholders of the importance of mainstreaming FATA. More likely, tribal leaders such as Maulana Fazlur are more concerned about seeing their support base erode. Not to mention the prospect of the merger bringing under scrutiny the vast network of seminaries that operate under JUI-F control.

The fact that FATA lawmakers — that is, the elected representatives of the tribal people — back the merger should suffice. Similarly, the fact that the ruling party as well as those of the main opposition have thrown their collective weight behind it means that the point of no return has been crossed. This is the very least that the people of FATA deserve.  *

Published in Daily Times, May 18^th 2018.