KHYBER: Leaders of political parties along with current and previous parliamentarians from the merged tribal districts on Thursday rejected the federal government’s decision to form a committee to examine the proposal of reviving the jirga system in the region, declaring it a step towards rolling back the merger of the erstwhile Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They told a seminar at Landi Kotal Press Club here that the people of tribal districts couldn’t afford more “experimentation” by the federal government about their future.

The speakers urged authorities to fulfil promises of development and restoration of peace made by them at the time of the passage of the 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018.

MNA Iqbal Afridi said the federal government had so far failed to devise a clear cut strategy about the future of tribal districts, while no serious effort was made to identify and address the issues of terrorism-hit people in border areas.

Political leaders insist proposal meant for merger rollback

He insisted that he along with other tribal parliamentarians had been raising the problems of the tribal districts at the National Assembly since the last elections but the federal government, instead of solving those problems, had come up with an obsolete idea of reviving tribal jirga while conveniently ignoring the existence of formal judicial systems in tribal districts.

He alleged that the federal government wanted to punish the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for its refusal to pass the mines and minerals bill and wanted to take control of the tribal districts by rolling back the merger with empowerment of the government sponsored pro-administration tribal elders.

“People of tribal districts have already given their verdict in support of the existing political set-up, which came into being after the passage of 25th Constitutional Amendment in 2018. They will not allow anyone to play with their fate again,” he said.

Former MPA Nasir Momand said from day one, the present federal government was not sincere about honouring the commitments made with the people of tribal districts in light of the Sartaj Aziz-led commission’s recommendations and had reneged on its promises while denying the tribal people.

He said that while the federal government faced growing criticism from tribal people over its failure to honour commitments, it was trying to pave the way for abolishing the current constitutional status of tribal districts and implementing the old jirga system.

The former lawmaker said the view that the revival of the jirga system in the existing scenario was an impossibility as the region had during the last two decades of terrorism lost hundreds of experienced and powerful tribal elders and the existing lot of pro administration elders have little or no control over the affairs of their respective areas.

Fazalur Rehman of the Awami National Party said if the federal government had no faith in the existing formal judicial system in tribal districts and wanted to replace it with the traditional jirga system, the same should be applied to the whole country by empowering jirga system and panchayat in Punjab as well while doing away with the apex and high courts.

Shah Faisal Afridi of the Jamaat-i-Islami said that his party had already expressed no confidence in the jirga committee as its head federal minister Amir Muqam lied to the people of tribal districts about the imposition of certain taxes that the people of tribal areas had opposed for a long time.

He asked the federal government to explain its intentions regarding imposition of taxes in the tribal region while trying to reintroduce the jirga system on the pattern of jirgas constituted under the erstwhile Frontier Crimes Regulation, which, he said, is completely against the wishes of the tribal people.

“We are still in a state of war, with most tribal districts in the grip of violence but the federal government is trying to do another experiment by reversing the Fata-KP merger and restoring the jirga system,” he said.

However, Sajid Ali of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz declared the proposed revival of the jirga system in the tribal region as a good omen for the region and insisted that the move would help alleviate the misery of tribal people.

He said that the federal government had no plans or intentions to roll back the merger of tribal districts with KP.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2025