Political parties allowed to operate freely: bringing tribal areas into the mainstream of national life

President Asif Ali Zardari Friday afternoon signed two orders for administrative, judicial and political reforms in the tribal areas. The two orders signed by the President are Amendments in the FCR (2011) and Extension of the Political Parties Order 2002 to the tribal areas.
While addressing the ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President said that political parties, subject to appropriate regulations to be framed, will be freely allowed to operate in the tribal areas and present their socio-economic programs on the one hand and the century-old Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) will be suitably tamed to make it responsive to the human rights of the people on the other.
The Prime Minister, federal ministers and secretaries, diplomats and representatives of political parties including ANP, PML-N, JI, PPP-S, PML-Q, MQM, NP, PKMAP and JUI (F) attended the ceremony. The President signed these two orders about an hour after the receipt of a summary to this effect from the Prime Minister. Held in the jam-packed hall of the Presidency, the signing ceremony was also witnessed by tribal elders drawn from all the seven tribal agencies, five frontier regions, FATA Parliamentarians, Governor KPK, provincial cabinet of KPK, Shaheed Bhutto Foundation, civil society members, media persons and representatives of a number of NGOs.
The President said the government had now allowed through these orders all the political parties operate freely for the first time in the country's tribal belt to sell their programmes in tribal areas with a view to countering the pernicious one-sided campaign of militants who wanted to impose their ideological agenda on the people by rejecting the writ of state, the Constitution, democracy and "indeed our very way of life."
The President said that tribal people have been governed by a hundred years old obsolete system of administration of justice that did not allow their creative potential to come into full play. He said that the law had been changed in accordance with the aspirations of the people and democratic principles. The President said that his head bowed in gratitude before Allah for having fulfilled yet another promise made with the people of FATA. He congratulated the tribesmen for harmonising reforms with their tribal customs and traditions.
He said that the legal and political reforms would rid the tribal people of a century of bondage and brought them into the mainstream of national life. "Some may say that the reforms are not enough and much more needs to be done," he said, adding "let it also not be forgotten that no one ever took even a single step in the last one hundred years to reform the FCR and give political rights to the people."
The President said the door had been unlocked and it was for the people of the tribal areas to decide how much more of reforms they actually wanted in their system of governance. Exploring to media persons the salient features of the reforms package, spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that contrary to past practice an accused shall have the right to bail and it will be mandatory to produce him before the concerned authority within 24 hours of arrest. Women, children below 16 and aged above 65 shall not be arrested or detained under Collective Responsibility.
According to him, henceforth, the whole tribe will not be arrested under the Collective Responsibility clause of FCR. A step-wise action will be taken - first immediate male members of family followed by sub-tribe and then by other sections of the tribe, he said. Cases will now be disposed of in a fixed timeframe and checks have been placed on the arbitrary power of arrest under the notorious Section 40A of the FCR.
Appeals will lie before Appellate Authority comprising Commissioner and a dedicated Additional Commissioner (Judicial) to be notified by the governor. The reforms envisage the setting up of a FATA Tribunal headed by Chairman and two other members out of whom one shall be a person who has been civil servant of not less than BPS 20 having experience of Tribal Administration and other member shall be a person qualified to be appointed as Judge of High Court well conversant with Rewaj (traditions).
The FATA Tribunal shall exercise power of Revision against orders/judgements of Appellate Authority and shall have powers similar to High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution. A new section has been added to the law providing for action for false prosecution in civil and criminal matters. Under it, the defendant will be entitled to adequate compensation in criminal matters and compensatory costs in civil matters.
He said that no person shall be deprived of his property without adequate compensation as per prevailing market value in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 procedure in settled areas. For the first time the funds at the disposal of the Political Agent shall be audited by Auditor General of Pakistan, the spokesperson said.
Section 58A has been added to the law to make provision for jail inspections by FATA Tribunal, Appellate Authority and the Political Agent. Rules will be framed for regulating the Agency Welfare Fund. Babar said that the reforms hammered out following consultations with all stakeholders had approved in principle on August 12, 2009 at a meeting in the Presidency, which was also attended by the Prime Minister. The meeting had left it to the President to announce reforms anytime that he deemed fit.
Although, the President had announced the reforms two days prior to the 63rd Independence Day its implementation remained stalled for a variety of reasons, Babar said. The signing of two orders today has made the process of reforms irreversible, according to him. Any attempt to undo it would require dismantling of consensus among the stakeholders and another Order to be signed by the President, Babar said.
He said that following the amendments to the law, the arbitrary powers of arrest and detention without the right to bail had been curtailed. The amendments have changed the most obnoxious provisions of FCR, according to him. Babar said that a major initiative was in the field of judicial reform. The changes made envisaged the setting up of a FATA Tribunal which "shall have powers similar to that of the high courts. The FATA Tribunal shall have powers of revision" against orders and judgements of Appellate Authority. Previously there was no such provision of appeal to a judicial authority, he said.
Background: Giving background of the efforts made in the past to bring about the changes, Babar said that in November 2004 the Senate passed a unanimous PPP-sponsored Resolution calling for changes in the FCR. In 2004, former Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto formed a special committee of the Party, which was named the FATA Reforms Committee.
Subsequently, she also filed a petition in the Supreme Court for political reforms in the tribal areas. In November 2004, the Senate adopted a PPP resolution for reforms in FATA. In August 2005, the Senate adopted the report of its Committee of Human Rights that called for changes in the FCR. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in his first address had announced that the FCR would be changed and brought into conformity with the human rights standards and in accordance with the aspirations of the people. Soon after the formation of government, a Committee of the Cabinet was set up in April 2008 under the then law minister, Farooq H. Naek, to examine the FCR in consultation with all the stakeholders and recommend changes in it.
In August 2008, the Shaheed Bhutto Foundation invited hundreds of tribesmen from all tribal agencies to solicit their views on the FCR and on political reforms in the tribal areas who unanimously recommended a minimum set of reforms. In January 2009, the President invited FATA tribesmen to the Presidency to seek their views of the FCR and need for political reforms.
The Cabinet Committee on FCR under Farooq H. Naek considered all of these and other previous reports that had recommended changes in the law in accordance with the wishes of the people. Next month, the Cabinet approved the report of the Cabinet Committee on FCR, which was also approved by the President, he said. In March 2011, the representatives of major political parties called on the President in the Presidency demanding an early implementation of the reforms package.