Reforms in Fata

Addressing the Tribal Jirga in Peshawar on 17 April 1948 the Quaid-e-Azam warmly welcomed tribal chiefs' declaration to join Pakistan, willingly and enthusiastically. And in accepting their "pledge of loyalty" he promised a regime of reforms for their socio-economic development, and also said "I trust you as our Muslim brethren across the border".
As a first step he ordered immediate withdrawal of army, a legacy of the British colonialism to use the tribal region as a buffer against feared Russian search for warm waters, saying there would be no undue interference in their internal freedom. If his successors did not follow the Quaid's guideline, kept the tribal region out of the mainstream Pakistan, both constitutionally and by way of its development, that is unfortunate.
Consequences of this blunder are now before us. Even their separate identity has been compromised. If they are all Pushtuns then why the new name of the NWFP is not only Pakhtunkhwa, and if they are Khyberites, which they are, why to add the word Khyber in the new name. They indeed have a separate identity.
But this was not the point of discussion at a seminar in Islamabad on Wednesday. Hosted by an NGO the seminar's participants representing nine mainstream political parties vowed to press the government for political, economic and social reforms in the Fata, including enforcement of Political Parties Order 2002. Such reforms, they opined, are necessary to 'obtain sustainable peace and development in Fata'.
For that aim in sight they also set up the "Political Parties Joint Committee on Fata Reforms" which has been tasked to initiate consultation process with the Fata people and at the same time the government must put into some material from President Zardari's package. Later talking to media, president's spokesman and the PPP's principal representative, Farhatullah Babar, said the president's package announced in August 2009 promised only partial repeal of the notorious Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) which virtually hands over Fata to the political agents who are appointed by the president.
Obviously, the seminar upheld the approach honed by the outsider as the way to prepare the people for political reforms. But the reality on the ground is different; political participation will open the way to economic development in the Fata region. Complete annulment of FCR is the main issue; pity it came under discussion only marginally.
It's our hope the committee would go further into this national issue and not like various such moots which could never leave the drawing board. And as it goes in this direction the committee would be well advised to draw from the guidance of those who had served in the area and know its problems. Only a day before Ayaz Wazir, a former Pakistan's ambassador who hails from the Fata, in a newspaper write up observed, rather grudgingly, that the people in Fata "are being treated as second-class citizens".
The Pakistani rulers' argument is not convincing that the tribesmen did not oppose the repeal of the FCR for the protection of their tribal allowances and for their freedom to keep their guns (as a license to kill each other). Whose interest we serve by clinging to the FCR, he had asked.
An effective legal system which can promptly deliver justice, would help quick replacement of the prevalent way which is the only process of quick disposal of disputes, both civil and criminal. Earlier action to wrest the tribesmen of FCR and Political Agents would greatly help in introducing the new political culture in the Fata region. On parliamentary level, no efforts should be spared to ensure equal citizenship for the tribesmen of Pakistan.