Governor's Fata secretariat yet to get legal cover
By Zulfiqar Ali
PESHAWAR, June 28: The NWFP governor's Fata secretariat has been functioning without rules of business or any legal cover for the last two years.
In background interviews, senior government functionaries said that without framing rules of business, functions and activities of the Fata Secretariat, it did not carry any legal status.
"When the federal government is already working out a plan to integrate Fata with the NWFP, there is no need to create a separate secretariat for the tribal areas," an official said.
The separation, he said, also went against the year 2002 chief executive order dated Jan 23, 2002, which envisaged that a seat should be allocated in the NWFP assembly as a prelude to the tribal areas in the Frontier province.
According to Article 247 (2) of the 1973 Constitution: "The president may, from time to time, give such directions to the governor of a province relating to the whole or any part of a tribal area within the province as he may deem necessary, and the governor shall, in the exercise of his functions under this article, comply with such directions."
A federal government official said the president had yet to issue an order for the creation of a separate secretariat for Fata and neither any amendment nor any rules of business could be framed without the order of the head of the state.
"Only the president can issue order for this purpose," the official said. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, when he was the chief executive, issued directives at a meeting held in Islamabad on Jan 23, 2002, that there was no need to have a separate secretariat for Fata, according to the official documents available with Dawn .
Instead, it said, the existing governor's secretariat in Peshawar be strengthened, and all departments and officials working for the tribal areas in the NWFP secretariat be made answerable to the governor's secretariat.
Gen Musharraf had also directed to abolish the Fata Development Corporation and the integration of its technical and industrial directorates with the governor's secretariat.
The defunct corporation was set up in 1971 under Section 42 of the Fata DC regulation 1970 to upgrade three sectors in tribal area including industry, minerals and irrigation.
Despite the chief executive's clear directives, governor's Fata secretariat was set up in Peshawar with two main organs, financial and security affairs. In all official documents and correspondence, including handouts, the governor's secretariat is mentioned and referred to as NWFP governor's Fata secretariat.
Secretary to governor Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed, however, argued that Fata secretariat did not exist and only the governor's secretariat had been strengthened. "There is no question of illegality as according to the Constitution, the governor, being an agent to the president, has powers to make separate arrangements for the tribal areas," Mr Saeed told Dawn .
He argued that all line departments had been brought under one umbrella to expedite development activities in Fata, which had been totally neglected in the past. He also claimed that consent of the president was involved in the entire arrangements and the federal government had been asked to frame separate rules of business for what he termed future Fata secretariat.
Senior officials assert that government departments and any other body could not validate their functions and activities unless rules of business are approved. "The functions and activities of the governor Fata secretariat are void and cannot be justified, as there are no rules of business to run the secretariat," remarked one former official with wide experience in Fata.
Officials said that without fulfilling legal requirements, no government official or department could approve bill or utilise funds for any purpose. However, the secretariat spent huge funds on renovation, purchase of new vehicles, stationary, computers, furnitures and other activities.
Prior to the creation of the Fata secretariat, there were special cells in the NWFP secretariat which looked after the affairs of the tribal areas and the administrative secretary concerned was answerable to the governor.
But now even after the separation, the provincial establishment department is still responsible for all sorts of postings and transfers both in the province and Fata. These special cells functioning in the NWFP secretariat for the tribal areas, including the one in the home and tribal affairs department, were integrated into what is now called the governor's Fata secretariat.
Apart from the law and order situation in Fata, the home and tribal department also dealt with matters pertaining to admission of candidates from tribal area in various professional institutions, extension of local government institutions, route permits and reservation of seats in different services and recruitment in the Army.
But all of a sudden powers and functions of all line departments were entrusted to one brain, which generated controversies between the provincial government and the Fata secretariat, officials said.
Sources said that despite the so-called separation, about 44,000 government employees in Fata were still getting salaries through the Accountant General Office while the home and tribal affairs department still released budgets for Khasadars and levy forces operating in various tribal regions.
The new arrangement, officials argue, had created an administrative void between the provincial government and tribal affairs department, that hitherto had remained under one department.
