PESHAWAR, Dec 7: Speakers at a seminar here have called for a realistic approach in efforts to bring about changes in the decades-old legal, judicial and administrative set-up in tribal areas.

Speaking at the two-day seminar on 'The Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan,' which began here on Tuesday, they pointed out that despite their geo-strategic importance and natural resources, the region had always been ignored and over 60 per cent of its population was still living below the poverty line.

The seminar has been organized by the Area Study Centre of Peshawar University in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation to discuss prospects of the region in view of recent developments in Afghanistan.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Peshawar, Gen (retd) Mumtaz Gul, former NWFP governor Naseerullah Babar, academicians and senior officials spoke on the first day. In his keynote address, Gen Gul pointed out that absence of good governance was a major reason behind for lack of social and economic development in tribal areas.

He said there was no check on corruption and administration officials had involved tribal maliks in their unscrupulous. "The status quo should be changed in tribal areas," Gen Gul said and suggested that Fata could be declared the fifth province of the country.

Mr Babar criticized the government's Fata policy and said there was lack of communication between the state and the people of the area. He opposed the idea of making Fata a province and said it would complicate the situation. There was also no need for a separate secretariat for Fata in Peshawar, he added.

Gen Babar said the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had formulated a policy for the socio-economic development of Fata under which the first PPP government had planned to introduce the system of adult franchise in tribal areas and to allocate 20 seats for Fata in the NWFP Assembly.

The purpose of the political and administrative reforms was to integrate Fata into the NWFP, he added. He said the late Afghan president, Sardar Mohammad Daud, had asked Mr Bhutto to postpone the proposed political reforms in tribal areas at least for one year.

"Our people will look towards Pakistan if you continue economic and political reforms in Fata," Gen Babar quoted the late Afghan president as having said. The former governor called for withdrawal of troops from tribal areas. He said the head of state should regularly visit the region and directly interact with the people to mitigate their sense of deprivation.

Dr Minhajul Hassan of the History Department spoke about the impact of Afghan jihad on tribal areas and said the Afghan crisis had adversely affected the social and economic sectors of tribal areas.

He said that the presence of a large number of Afghan refugees in the tribal territory had promoted religious intolerance and extremism, caused increase in crimes, particularly drug trafficking.

Dr Nasir Ali Khan, director of the Institute of Management Sciences, said the government's policies about Fata lacked vision and sincerity, due to which there was no improvement either in literacy rate or in the economic conditions of the people.

He said only 0.20 per cent of the tribal territory was under cultivation, and the region produced about 100 tons of wheat annually for a population of 3.2 million. He said it was unfortunate that mineral and other natural resources of the area had not been explored.