Ideally, there shouldn’t bean FCR. There should be the rule of law in FATA. There should be a legal system at par with the rest of the country, constitutional guarantees, women rights, and all that is known as the inviolable rights of the individual and a human group that lives within a state. But there is much to be desired and very little available. No matter how hard this reality sounds, FATA is reeling under misery. Its people are victims of war, on terror or otherwise;their livelihood destroyed within and outside FATA, and their children left to starve in the mire of homelessness.
The limited options for survival in this land are being taken away from them, bit by bit. The little agriculture they had is vanishing since the needed fertilisers are not allowed easily, lest it is used for bomb building. Their trade is in shambles due to the continued border closures between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since livelihood has always been hard to find in this land, tribesman used to disperse from Islamabad to Karachi in search of it. Karachi became the biggest city of the Pashtuns. But this option is also vanishing rapidly. With the rise in national abhorrence of the Pashtuns, especially tribesmen from FATA, it is becoming difficult to survive in ethnically different parts of the country. “Not every Pashtun is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Pashtun”, became part of our national narrative. This leaves very little room for the tribesmen from FATA to even dream of a better life, let alone realise it.
The new social contract offered by the Pakistani state is mainstreaming FATA through a steady merger into the KP. Itseems like an excellent deal keeping in view that the notorious FCR is going to go,but it isn’t going anywhere. It will just go away in the “protected areas” which will be expended year by year, keeping in view the law and order situation and the capacity of the newly emerging governing structure in the area. The wait is long. It is five years. The good old system will still remain in place, named as transition. The transition includes two basicaspects: first, is the legal one, while the second includes security and administration. The civil suits are easy. They will be decided by a judge, but the judge will still have the authority to refer the evidence-based cases to the council of elders. This is the same old Jirga system. Isn’t it? In regard to criminal proceedings, there is room for a FIR with the levies. They will be trained during the transition through the KP police for forensic and investigation.
But is the transition going to remain hostage to the past, is the real question? It may or may not! The transition will witness glimpses of the same old system since it is not easy to bring in phenomenal changes no matter how desperate the people are and how late it seems to be to take the right action. The government’s capacity to extend the rule of law, as well as the indigenous growth of the workforce, knowledgeable and considerate enough to take care of the peculiar cultural nuances of the region, will take time. But there is a silver lining. The Peshawar High Court’s FATA bench is there. The right to appeal is there, though the system on the ground is not perfect for the time being. This step from an almost lawless system to the one with separation of judiciary and executive is a good one. This need to be appreciated and taken as a plus.
The administrative system under the Riwaj Act is an evolving one. It is not perfect, but it is realistic. And realistic is what we need right now. There are always ifs and buts, and things could be done better in a hundred different ways. But the question here is whether it is a good deal or a bad one? It is a good one. It is a chance to get out of the colonial heritage and come at par with the whole of the nation. Be part of the larger whole and enjoy the same rights. It gets rid of the FCR. It opens opportunities. It opens up the opportunity, to begin with, the media; a voice FATA was never allowed to speak for itself.
The immediate benefit of participation in the 2018 KP elections, the possibility of being getting Local Bodies elections in 2018 are the goals to focus on. The transition will also include the launch of 10 Year Development Plan that the FATA Reforms Committee is pleading for to alleviate poverty in FATA, the highest rate of 73 percent in Pakistan.
It is time to push for more and more and not to thwart what is in hand. There are innumerable possibilities to explore and struggle for. One should have the eyes on the prize, freedom and emancipation through the spread of ademocratic system of governance. The time is right, and it is now.
The writer teaches at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Peshawar. He can be reached at [email protected]