PESHAWAR, July 29: A report released by the Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) has recommended immediate review of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) to eliminate unjust punishment of individuals in the tribal belt.
The PPA report observed that the FCR placed executive and judicial powers in a single authority, the political agent, making it all-powerful.
The Planning Commission of Pakistan and NWFP Governor’s Fata secretariat in this regard jointly organized a public consultation session on the PPA-Fata working here on Tuesday.
Elaborating on the main objectives of the programme, project coordinator Rashida Dohad said that the purpose of the report was to understand poverty and suggest new constituencies for anti-poverty action.
She said that three agencies - Kurram, Khyber and South Waziristan - were selected where study was conducted in target areas in collaboration with the local stakeholders.
Terming the socio-economic situation in Fata bleak, the PPA report pointed out the adult female literacy rate in the region was close to zero and educational facilities were inadequate, particularly in the poor sub-sites. It observed that even in the better-off sub-sites in the Kurram Agency, primary school teachers had been absent for the past several years.
According to the report gender-based discrimination in the provision of public services was an obvious example of the treatment of women as second-rate citizens.
The report recommended to ensure equal access to justice regardless of gender, tribe or social status in Fata.
All formal institutions should be made more effective and transparent and the
government must examine strategies to prevent exchange of women in the resolution of disputes, the report said.
It was also suggested that the government should implement laws to eliminate domestic violence against women.
Apart from that, the PPA report proposed that the government examine policies and strategies to ensure equitable access to and control over natural resources, including addressing women’s right to inherit land.