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| March 29, 2003 | Saturday | Muharram 25, 1424 |
Fata reforms stalled after 9/11: governor
PESHAWAR, March 28: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said the government had already completed a package aimed at effecting drastic changes in the Frontier Crime Regulations in Fata, but had to defer its implementation in the wake of 9/11 events that changed the geo-political scenario in the region.
He was speaking as a chief guest at a seminar entitled “Status of Women in Fata” organised by National Commission on the Status of Women at a local hotel on Friday.
The government was committed to changing the 150-year-old system, “made by our colonial masters” not to develop Fata region, but to protect their own vested interest, the governor said.
The government had already finalized the amendments to the FCR, which would better the lot of the tribesmen, he added.
The governor said the system could not be changed overnight and “we need to adopt a path of evolution, if we want these changes to be fruitful.”
Mr Shah said these changes would bring about the much-needed improvement in administrative and judicial system.
However, he said the old Jirga system operated there for centuries would be kept intact.
Women’s education was next to zero in Fata, with only one woman in 500 being literate, he said, adding that plans were afoot to build degree colleges, one each for boys and girls, in every tribal unit.
“Without giving education to womenfolk, no progress or development can take place in any region, let alone Fata,” the governor said.
Chairman, National Commission on the Status of Women, Justice Majida Rizvi (retired), said the commission was established in July 2000 as a permanent statutory body, with a view to identifying women’s problems and suggesting a change in laws that harmed their interest.
She said women faced numerous problems in health, education and employment. But those residing in Fata were faced with an even worse situation, more so because of their male-dominated customs and traditions, she added.
The women of Fata were incapacitated by their lack of education and health facilities, which constituted their basic problems.
The commission, she said, had engaged consultants, who were busy in research with regard to the problems of women, like Hudood Laws and their rights and duties, etc., in order to bring women-friendly changes in the existing laws.
MPA Nasreen Khattak proposed that the commission should also be empowered to make changes in laws which it considered against women’s interest.
She said the issue of water supply in tribal units should also be given priority as tribal women were forced to fetch water from far-off places for their domestic needs.
Chairman, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Afrasiab Khattak, alleged that the government, despite making tall claims about bringing reforms in Fata, had failed to do so, in the face of tough resistance from the political administration and Malik system.
The government, he said, had planned to extend its devolution plan to Fata, but could not, due to the conspiracies hatched by the vested interest, who were all for maintaining the status quo.
Mr Khattak said the prevalent laws in Fata had badly affected both men and women, because anybody could be arrested any time, at any place, in Fata.
The repressiveness is reflected in the fact that the aggrieved people cannot knock at the door of courts with regard to their detention, he said.
He said there was an urgent need to “de-colonize” the system and extend the laws of settled areas to Fata.
Begum Ali Jan of the Governor’s Inspection Team said the girls enrolment in tribal areas was 18 per cent (primary), 7 per cent (middle), 5 per cent (high), 30 per cent (higher), 4 per cent (college) and 22 per cent (elementary).
Fata is stretched over an area of 27,220 sq km, and its population, according to the 1998 census, is 3.18m, almost half of which are women.
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