Daily Times

SITUATIONER

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: As many as 289 contenders are vying for 12 National Assembly (NA) seats from the formerly Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the volatile tribal region now merged with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Plagued by insecurity, militancy and lawlessness, the region that shares 2,400-kilometres long border with Afghanistan is witnessing extraordinary enthusiasm in the ongoing election campaign.

Amid election sloganeering by supporters of different political parties and independent candidates, the majestic and jagged mountains of South Waziristan – the birth place of the banned militant outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) whose excruciating hold saw mass exodus of families – resonate with music and drum beats these days. Heightened political activity can be seen with charged supporters of various political parties and candidates moving in long queues of vehicles visiting different towns to garner public support.

The Ministry of SAFRON states that the population of FATA is 3.18 million, but as per the last year’s census conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the population has surged to 5,001,676. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the voters registered in the tribal districts are 2,510,154 (with 1,507,902 male voters and 1,002,252 female).

Until a few years ago, the entire region was in the grip of bloody insurgency in which hundreds of tribal elders were killed systematically, prompting the military to launch an offensive to banish terrorism.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of SAFRON, the military operations led to the displacement of 337,915 families from the region. The government has now completed the repatriation process of displaced families.

Back in 2015, the PML-N government had tasked a committee to suggest reforms for the tribal region, which eventually led to the merger of FATA with KP province, but the constitution of Pakistan is yet to be fully implemented and the governance system is still being run under the FATA Interim Governance Regulation.

Before the 2013 general election, political parties were not legally allowed to take part in elections in FATA. The upcoming election will be the second after the extension of the Political Parties Act to the region. Several tribal people maintained that political activity will lead to greater development activities, besides discouraging militancy.

“We have seen bloodbath, explosions, militancy and mayhem for over a decade now. Our entire new generation was brought up in war, so the election campaign offers a rare moment of happiness for us,” Saeed Nawaz, a tribal elder from Miran Shah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, remarked.

A peculiar feature of the upcoming election is the entry of activists previously affiliated with the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), a civil-rights movement led by south Waziristan youngster Manzoor Pashteen. The movement rose to prominence in January 2018 when it began a long march to seek justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud, who was killed extra-judicially in a police encounter in Karachi that same month.

Thanks to PTM supporters’ active participation in the campaign, a sight frequently seen across the tribal belt these days is the traditional Attan dance.

Four candidates in the July 25 contest from across tribal districts played an active role in PTM. They were relieved of their duties in the core committee of the movement when they decided to contest elections, to maintain PTM’s neutral status.

Among these,

Mohsin Dawar is contesting the election from from NA-48 North Waziristan; Jamal Malyar from NA-49 South Waziristan; Ali Wazir from NA-50 South Waziristan; and Abdullah Nangyal from NA-51 Frontier Regions (FR).

Background interviews with locals suggest that Wazir, Dawar and Nangyal are likely to secure their respective seats on July 25.

“I will vote only in favour of PTM activists because they were the first people to have promised us a better tomorrow. They have promised to open good educational institutions for our children to beat illiteracy alongside their fight against militancy,” Shah Muhammad, a student in WANA, the headquarters of South Waziristan, told told Daily Times in a telephone interview.

Published in Daily Times, July 12^th 2018.