Daily Times

The symbols and institutions, including political parties, that should represent and articulate people’s will and interests are rendered toothless and discredited due to pursuing narrow sectional interests by bargaining in the name of people.

The recent quiescence of the parliament to the pressure of the army is a glaring example of the weakness of elected representatives and political parties. It is also indicative of the reality that they can lay down when asked to crouch for the sake of vested interests and weak characters as leaders.

The current parliament also trod the path of its predecessors by confirming that in Pakistan a parliament can only indemnify coups d’etat and constitutionalise the whims of the security establishment. Perhaps such objectives necessitate the periodic existence of the parliament in Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif notwithstanding the rhetoric of ‘vote ko izzat do’, civilian supremacy and the bravado of turning ideological, once again proved that all the sloganeering revolved around to save his own person, otherwise he would not have let the parliament reduce itself to such an ignominious position. All eyes were on him at a time when the PPP, PTI and ANP had capitulated to the same line as political opportunists in expectation of power crumbs in the forthcoming election.  Unfortunately, he and his party could not rise to the occasion.

The passage of the contentious bill in the form of the 31st Constitutional Amendment to merge FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the last week of the parliament’s tenure cannot be seen as a democratic execution by the parliament.

In fact it needs to be understood that the merger took place without seeking the consent of the people of FATA. Out of the current 11 members of the National Assembly from FATA, only two voted in its favour. Why did the nine abstain? How can it be justifiably assumed that the two MNAs represented the entire region of FATA while discounting the remaining nine’s abstinence or refusal!

Without falling into the legal and constitutional intricacies best left to the experts on the subject, I as a layperson am flabbergasted by how a parliament surrogated its right to decide the crucial question of merging (read appropriating), a semi-independent region without referring to its populous for which the same parliament has no constitutional right to legislate. Perhaps, parliament could exercise this right of amending the Constitution once the consent of the people of FATA was obtained through proper and acceptable methods.

But history is replete with evidence and examples of how a security state uses its black and grey varieties of propaganda to turn majority of its population, even the intelligentsia, into useful idiots and expendable agents.

After the publication of Sartaj Aziz-headed FATA Reforms Committee’s report in August 2016, the intelligentsia, human rights moguls, journalists, anchors and politicians began shouting at the top of their lungs regarding the mainstreaming of FATA.

Their newfound zeal for FATA indicates that till the publication of the FATA reforms committee report, FATA was on another planet, its people were treated as occupied subjects and the time had come to liberate them.

In fact the merger option of FATA in the name of reforms, like the military courts insertion into the Constitution, came out of the womb of Zarb-e-Azb, a military operation in North Waziristan in 2015. It is no longer a secret that the operation was started by the then COAS, Raheel Sharif without the prior approval of Nawaz’ government. The government announced its support for the military operation when it had already kick started.

Retrospectively, it is not difficult to connect the pieces of the puzzle. The so called FATA reforms aimed at merger were tailored as a cover up to the post Zarb-e-Azb situation to change the region’s strategic dimension according to emerging alignments, regional, international and army’s geo-strategic and economic interests not of the people of FATA.

On May 24, 2018 we added another feather to the cap of the chequered and treacherous history of this country where the people’s will was not considered to decide their destiny. But that will has been manipulated and moulded according to the wishes, whims and interests of the powers that be

If the status of FATA was a human or constitutional rights issue, which already existed for the 70 years of independence, if one does not count the colonial era, why did it surface in 2016? Two basic questions require a response. Why was a haphazard merger the only answer? Why did the merger assume the name of FATA reforms?

Would PPP and ANP accept the responsibility of prolonging the miseries, human and constitutional rights violation by not making the FATA reforms part of the 18th constitutional amendment?  Could Afrasiab Khattak sahib and Raza Rabbani, two enlightened members of the 18 constitutional amendment’s committee, inform us what were the causes of not incorporating FATA into the otherwise comprehensive constitutional amendment? Was that merely an oversight or parliament’s capitulation to Pindi such as the red notice on amending sections 62/63?

If reforms were incorporated into the 18th constitutional amendment, FATA, particularly North Waziristan, would not have suffered the additional miseries under Zarb-e-Azb. Ironically, the identities and number of properties destroyed and innocent lives lost in this military venture are now known as collateral damage. But the identity of the terrorists against whom the operation was conducted remains suspiciously undeclared.

According to the thesis of the enlightened commentators, self-appointed human rights activists and paratrooper anchor persons, terrorists and terrorism secured a toehold in the region because it was not mainstreamed and jurisdiction of the higher and superior judiciary was not extended to it. If the jurisdiction of the higher and superior judiciary could not save Swat and Malakand Division, how can those factors ensure FATA security? But surprisingly, why did the army not push, as it did now, the ignorant and inept politicians to make it part of the 18th Amendment?

The security establishment also succeeded in subtly manipulating the sentiments and non-FATA opinion in favour of the merger. Those who were and are contesting the merger option are dubbed as supporters of the black law of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

In the given circumstances, a great favour to the people of FATA would be the abolition of the draconian sections of the FCR, replacing the mini god position of Political Agent into public servant, rehabilitation of the displaced people of FATA and creating a conducive environment where a common resident of FATA could express his/her opinion without fear.

But the bells are again tolling for FATA and its people. This time it is wrapped in a package of inclusion as citizens, as if they were not before, to meet the geo-strategic interests of the state. Those who are aware of the prevailing sentiments of the FATA people will call the 31st Amendment another imposed One Unit via a pliant parliament this time. Decapitation is not the response to cure a headache.

The writer is a political analyst hailing from Swat. Tweets @MirSwat

Published in Daily Times, May 28^th 2018.