PESHAWAR, March 2: The government has planned to hold local bodies elections in the tribal areas in the last week of August under the devolution plan, preliminary delimitation for which has already been completed, a senior government official said.
“Preliminary delimitation has been completed and we are now in the process of sorting out minor problems”, the official said.
This will be the first time in the history of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) that local bodies’ elections are being held there. Elections will be held simultaneously in the seven tribal agencies and five Frontier regions on the one-man-one-vote basis.
The official said delimitation of union councils had been done without disturbing tribal entities keeping in view tribal sensitivities that might lead to a conflict. “The tribal people are very sensitive to their rights and privileges and the government does not want to create a dispute that may get out of (its) hands.”
The government had decided to maintain sub-tribal entities, retaining geographical contiguity and at the same time ensuring that census blocks were not broken up, the official said, adding that a draft notification called the “Extension of the Local Bodies Regulation” had been prepared in consultation with the law department and that it was being reviewed section by section to ensure that the devolution plan worked smoothly.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra), the Pakistan Census Organization and the political administration are said to have been coordinating their efforts to complete the task entrusted to them.
The EC is preparing fresh electoral rolls, which are expected to be ready by July.
“We have a target date for the local bodies elections and these should be held towards the last week of August”, the official said and added that the entire exercise of extending the local bodies system to the tribal areas would be completed by Sept 30, ahead of the general election scheduled to be held in October.
He said NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah was weekly monitoring the process. Various committees were working to complete the exercise of devolution plan, he said and added that there would be an agency council at the tribal agency level to be headed by an agency Nazim, while the nomenclature of the all-powerful political agent would be changed to that of an agency-coordinating officer with his powers drastically curtailed.
In the first phase, tribal elders to be nominated by the governor would fill 23 per cent of the seats.
According to the official, the British-time Frontier Crimes Regulation is being amended to provide for an agency Munsif conversant with tribal customs and traditions, while Khasadars and tribal levy would be merged and trained to look after law and order. An officer would head the new force. Frontier Regions will have tehsil councils.
“The total withdrawal of FCR would create a legal vacuum, so the government has decided to amend the law to give it a more human face by ensuring right of appeal and retaining the tribal Riwaj. Most importantly, women will also be given representation in the agency councils in what is considered to be a deeply conservative and tribal setup.”
The official said the devolution plan to be extended to the tribal areas would not be much different from the one implemented in the settled districts. “The outline is more or less the same but we have also kept in mind tribal traditions and have, therefore, adjusted the plan accordingly without losing sight of the spirit of devolution plan.”