BAJAUR, March 31: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that FATA reforms are in the form of a compact package covering at least five aspects of the tribal system and it would be implemented in totality.

The devolution of power plan is a part of the reforms package, he said, adding that other areas to be covered by these reforms include judicial and financial system, law and order mechanism and representation in the NWFP assembly.

He was addressing a public meeting at Nawagai and a tribal jirga at Khar, the Bajaur Agency headquarters, during his one-day visit to the tribal agency on Saturday.

He said that the post of Political Agent would be abolished as all administrative powers would be delegated to Agency Nazim under the new scheme of things. Councils, comprising elected representatives, would be established at the village, tehsil and agency level with full decision-making powers.

Under the devolution plan, the development schemes would be identified and approved by the councillors and implemented under proper monitoring by elected representatives, he said, adding the government officials would not interfere in the preparation of development strategy.

Iftikhar said that with the abolishment of political office, the judicial matters would be looked after by a Munsif who will have no power to decide a case on his own but would be bound to accept the decision of the jirga constituted for the purpose.

The Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) would be amended to bring it in conformity with the basic human right norms and aspirations of the tribal people, he added. In this connection, he referred to Section 40 of the FCR and collective responsibility mechanism, saying that such inhuman and unjustified clauses of FCR would be either amended or totally repealed.

A three-tier appellate mechanism is a part of the reforms to make a tribal judicial system justice-oriented, he said, adding that the tribal jirga had no match in providing free, fair and easy justice to the tribal people.

The jirga system, he added, “is like that of the US Jury system in which the decision-making authority rests with the Jury and the court is bound to accept its verdict.” The governor said that we wanted to make the tribal judicial system a model system for the rest of the country.

Mr Shah made it clear that neither police nor courts on the pattern of settled areas would be brought in the tribal areas. Despite implementation on FATA reforms, the judicial jirga system, customary laws and rewaj would continue to exist, he remarked.

About the law and order, he said the existing Khasadar force would continue to exist as such, but the system would be improved for the future. The salaries of Khasadars would be brought in line with the salaries of other government servants together with fringe benefits and pensionary rights.

He said all unjustified taxation system including taxes on wheat flour, issuance of the domicile certificates and national identity cards would be abolished under FATA reforms. The shortfall as a result of the abolishment of these taxes would be borne by the federal government as promised. He said that a special package for FATA worth Rs7.5 billion was under preparation and Bajaur Agency would get a share of at least one billion rupees from it.

He clarified that allocation under Khushal Pakistan Programme, ADP and special areas projects were in addition to this special allocation. A sum of Rs230 million was being spent under the KPP in the agency, he added.

The governor said that FATA was being given representation in the NWFP Assembly and tribal people would get this representation on the basis of their population. This representation, he said, would neither change the federal status of tribal areas nor it would have any negative effect on their representation in the National Assembly and Senate.

He said that a separate FATA Cell had been created in the Governor’s Secretariat to deal with the FATA affairs as the federal government agreed to delegate all the powers to Governor that was being exercised by SAFRON.

Earlier, the governor inaugurated construction and black topping of Nawagai-Kanagara road. Two separate delegation of Bajuar Siyasi Ittehad and tribal elders also met the governor.

Talking to the delegation of tribal elders, the governor assured them that their status would remain unchanged in the new system.