Daily Times

Pakistan has made history. After 70 long years, the people of FATA have achieved provincial status and all due rights that come with this. To highlight its enormity, Imran Khan showed up at the National Assembly after an absence of two years; thereby underscoring the value of tax payer money.

The FATA-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa merger is a triumph of resilience on several fronts. First and foremost, the credit goes to the local population. For they have suffered unduly at the hands of repeated failures by the state to establish its writ in an area that much of the western media insists on referring to as the tribal badlands of Pakistan. While the PTI has long supported this mainstreaming project, it must be noted that civil society groups such as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) exerted pressure on all stakeholders in their simple quest for social justice. In short, the latter showcased to drawing rooms all over the country how they were being denied fundamental rights. That certain state organs responded by arresting members and supporters alike further consolidated PTM claims.

Admittedly, in an ideal world a referendum would have been held. This, after all, is self-determination at its best. That this did not happen should not, however, be used to undermine the merger process. Not least because under a system of parliamentary democracy — it is Parliament that reigns sovereign and supreme.

As such, the FATA-KP merger therefore represents a victory for the current elected Assemblies. For it demonstrates what can be accomplished when political rivalry is put aside in the name of consensus that not only reflects the peoples’ will but also the greater good. For what can benefit the country more than all citizens enjoying equal rights under the jurisdiction of each and every (future) government of the day? Indeed, this is one of the conditions of statehood as provided by international law.

Of course, doubtless challenges lie ahead. Yet it is up to incoming governments both at the Centre and in KP to ensure that reform goes beyond mere paperwork. FATA post-merger cannot be allowed to become another ‘special zone’. Especially considering the anticipated dividends on the anti-terror front given that all madrassas will now fall under the provincial purview. This similarly bodes well when it comes to the question of militant safe-havens and current geo-strategic realities.

But more than anything, FATA’s mainstreaming represents a long overdue reminder of how democracy must be the only way forward for Pakistan. Because it, ultimately, is the only paradigm that puts the rights of the people first. *

Published in Daily Times, May 26^th 2018.