PESHAWAR, June 28: Former interior minister Maj-Gen (retired) Naseerullah Khan Baber has asked Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to follow into the footsteps of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and play his due role in bringing a lasting peace and sustainable development to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
He demanded of Islamabad to close the separate Fata Secretariat and vest the administration of tribal agencies with the provincial government.
Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, Mr Baber, also a former NWFP governor, said that it was the duty of NWFP governor and chief minister to restore the confidence of the tribal people and residents of Peshawar, who were being threatened of occupation of their city by the religious groups.
He said residents of Peshawar had enough resilience to fight back and teach a lesson to the so-called invaders. Way back in 1930, he said, Peshawarites had beaten back hordes of invaders and saved the city. “No one can dare to occupy or attack the provincial capital and impose a wild authority on its residents,” he added.
He hit hard at NWFP governor and interior secretary for “spoiling” the things in tribal agencies. Mr Baber said: “It does not need to wear tainted glasses and designer’s suit and look like a Gestapo member to browbeat one’s own people.” He said that it was the time to solve the problems of tribesmen, who were the victims of authoritarianism. He asked the NWFP governor to shed his lethargy, take action against criminals and visit the tribal agencies.
He said Rehman Malik, adviser to prime minister on interior security, and Syed Kamal Shah, interior secretary, who were supposed to ensure the internal security, were making contrary statements on the same issue.
He said Mr Bhutto was the first Pakistani leader, who would visit the tribal agencies twice in a year and hold meetings with tribesmen, real defenders of Pakistan’s western border and liberators of Azad Kashmir. He said it was Mr Bhutto who had initiated socio-economic development in the tribal agencies from 1972 to 1977 by increasing Fata annual budget manifold. In 1977, he said, the federal cabinet met in Peshawar and decided to extend the Political Parties Act to the whole of Fata and grant the right of adult franchise to the tribesmen so that they could elect their proposed 20 members for NWFP Assembly.
He said Mr Bhutto wanted a gradual assimilation of the tribal areas into the province by bringing them at par with the rest of provincial population. He said the politico-economic package was to be implemented in 1978, but Gen. Ziaul Haq set it aside after his military coup. He said it was a result of Zia’s misplaced policy of Islamisation that he got elected MNAs and Senators from the religious parties and ignored the traditional tribal elders.
He said Mr Bhutto would not go to Frontier Corps’ messes for his luncheon, conversely he would prefer to have a meal with tribal elders at their hujras. He said Mr Bhutto had developed a kind of friendship with the tribal elders, who would anxiously wait for his seasonal visit to their agencies. But today the government had turned all of them into arch enemies of the country by treating them as third-class citizen of Pakistan, he added.
He said Mr Bhutto had established a Cadet College in Razmak in 1976 and ordered construction of a medical college along with a 200-bed teaching hospital and 20 bungalows for the professors. He said classes were to be started in a Shlozan building in Parachinar.
He said Mr Bhutto also ordered construction of an engineering college in Bara in Khyber agency and got inducted tribal graduates in federal departments and autonomous bodies.
He demanded of the government to hold an investigation into the embezzlement of funds earmarked for the Fata development during the last 30 years.