At last, the government has decided to extend the Political Parties Order, 2002 to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and bring amendments to Frontier Crimes Regulation after much water has gone down the bridge. This lawless tribal region requires genuine reforms rather than cosmetic measures announced by President Asif Ali Zardari on the occasion of Independence Day. President Zardari has made the announcement at a time when there is chaos in tribal area.
Fata has a saga of so-called reforms since tribal borderlands have been granted special status in the 1973 Constitution. Every successive regime — both civil and military —made tall claims of bringing drastic administrative reforms to make Fata economically prosperous, but practically nothing has been done.
When executive authority of the federation was extended to Fata in the 1973 Constitution, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto focused on the area's economic uplift instead of legal and judicial reforms. His government constructed schools, colleges, hospitals and improved road networks and set up industrial units in all seven agencies.
Bhutto wanted to capitalise through his populist campaign in Fata and he directly approached tribesmen through public meetings instead of addressing elders chosen by political agents. He regularly visited Fata and addressed public gatherings.
According to former NWFP governor, Maj-Gen (retired) Naseerullah Khan Babar, Bhutto had decided in principle to bring political reforms in the area and give the right of adult franchise to the tribal people in the 1977 general elections, but he (Bhutto) delayed the reform package on the request of the then Afghan President Sardar Mohammad Daud.
The Afghan president, according to Babar, was under pressure that if Bhutto brought political reforms on the Pakistani side of the tribal area then it could create turmoil for him (Daud) in Afghanistan.
The eleven-year rule of Gen Mohammad Ziaul Haq was a dark period for Fata. Instead of political and economic reforms Zia's government introduced a culture of gun and heroin in the tribal society. The region had become a market for drug trafficking. Zia's policies cultivated jihadi culture and the region became a dumping site for holy warriors.
Like Zia's regime, the elected governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif too ignored Fata. Despite commitments in the party manifesto, Benazir Bhutto followed the establishment's line.
Nawaz Sharif's government maintained the same position. Despite 2/3 majority in the National Assembly in 1997 he did not pay heed to reforms in this backward region.
Only former president Farooq Leghari had made a landmark decision in 1997 by giving the right of vote to the tribal people. Before the 1997 general elections only few thousands maliks had the right of casting vote and contesting elections.
Subsequently when Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf became the chief executive in October 1999 he embarked upon a devolution plan to bring power at the grassroots level in all four provinces and the tribal areas. He promised to abolish the FCR, curtail the powers of political agents and introduce the local government system in Fata.
A special cell was created in the National Reconstruction Bureau to recommend reforms for Fata. Later, a former bureaucrat Sahibzada Imtiaz Ahmad was given the task to finalise reform plan for the tribal areas and a blueprint for the local government system in Fata was prepared.
The proposed plan included election of nazims and naib nazims on the tehsil and agency level through direct elections on one man one vote basis, representation of women in the proposed local bodies system and the conversion of Levies Force into police.
About 40 police stations were proposed for the entire tribal region and a merger of Frontier Constabulary with Frontier Corps was also included in the plan. An agreement was signed with a foreign donor agency for compiling the proposed devolution plan for Fata and a tentative year for holding the first local bodies elections in the area was 2003. Integration of Fata with the Frontier province was also on the cards.
But all of a sudden the plan was shelved and the document has yet to see the light of the day. Instead of holding local bodies' election, the then governor of NWFP Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, through an executive order announced setting up of nominated councils at the agency level without giving legal or constitutional cover.
Each tribe was authorised to nominate members for these councils. Under the plan 70 per cent of the seats in each agency council were filed by the respective tribes through nomination, while 30 per cent members were nominated by the respective political agents. Nominated agency councils were set up in 2003.
It was an eye-wash and before departure from Governor's House Iftikhar Hussain had set up a committee comprising retired bureaucrats and close friends, including a journalist, to propose amendments in the FCR.
When Commander Khalilur Rehman became the governor of NWFP, he dismissed that committee and set up another one headed by retired judge of High Court Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal. This commission finalised a set of recommendations, however, this measure did not yield any real results.
The present government's reform plan, which seems incomplete, is just like a futile exercise done by various governments in the past. It calls for limited amendments in the FCR. The proposed plan includes the extension of the PAO, 2002, exclusion of women and children below the age of 16 under the collective responsibility clause of the FCR, setting up Fata tribunal with powers similar to those of the high court and audit of funds received and disbursed by the political agents etc.
The government will have to announce a comprehensive plan to give legal and constitutional rights to the tribal people instead of wasting time on the formation of committees and commissions to iron out the thorny issues for good.
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