Extending PPA to Fata: Call for taking stakeholders on board before implementation

Extension of Political Parties Act (PPA) to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will pave the way for political as well as economic empowerment of the people, however, the government should take all the stakeholders on board and remove grievances of the tribal people before its implementation.
This was the crux of a daylong seminar titled "Extension of Political Parties Act to Fata" organised by FATA Research Centre here on Tuesday. Senator Rahat Hussain of JUI-F, Ajmal Khan Wazir, Senior Vice President of PML-Q, Habib Khan Orakzai, human rights activist and President Muttahida Qabail Party and Khan Mirjan of FATA Grand Alliance were the key speakers of the seminar, which was attended by foreign diplomats, journalists and civil society activists.
The speakers urged the government to remove anomalies in Political Parties Act (PPA) before making any headway for political process in tribal areas and give a better plan, which would enable people of the areas to enter the socio-economic development process. Durable peace is impossible in FATA unless the PPA is implemented in true letter and spirit in the area, they opined.
They said that the mineral, natural and human resources rich tribal areas were capable to address the economic crisis of the country, but hidden forces did not want Pakistan to be stable and conspiring against the tribal areas. The speakers were of the view that the launch of political activities could help remove the sense of deprivation prevailing among the tribal people.
They rejected certain amendments to the PPA, saying that through the amendments government wants to give power to military so that it could run the affairs in the Fata and run it in its own way. "This is not acceptable to people of Fata and if these tactics were adopted it would have negative impacts," they added. They rejected the proposal to merge tribal areas into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, saying any such move would be tantamount to depriving people of tribal areas of their identity.
Senator Rahat Hussain said that it was the long-lasting desire of the tribal people to take part in political process like other parts of the country and play their role in democratic process and socio-economic uplift of the area and rest of the country. He said the announcement of President Zardari to extend the PPA to tribal area has generated hope among people of tribal areas, but it need sincerity in implementation to yield better results.
"There are flaws in the PPA, which must be removed and it should be implemented for the betterment of the people living in tribal areas," JUI Senator said, adding that some matters, which the tribal elders want to settle through their local Jirga should be left to them and they should be allowed to resolve these issues locally.
Ajmal Wazir termed the Act as mockery, saying that without looking into ground realities the act was being extended to tribal areas where no one can guarantee the security of the public gatherings. "Drone attacks on marriage parties, funeral processions are realities then who guarantee that the US drones will not attack the political gatherings," he questioned.
"Youths are vanguard for political process, but unfortunately majority of the youths neither have computerised national identity cards nor have their votes registered, then how they can take part in political process," Wazir asked. Ajmal Wazir lamented that top political leadership of the country is not sincere with the people of tribal areas so that they are not talking about implementation of the PPA, even they are not gaining courage to condemn the recent fresh wave of drone attacks.
Malik Habib termed the extension of PPA as a great achievement of the tribal people, saying that the tribal people had been fighting for it for the last 60 years and finally succeeded in obtaining the right to have political activities in these areas.
Dr Ashraf Ali, President FRC, said that the institution has initiated the series of seminars to bring all stakeholders around the table to discuss the issues and problems being faced by Fata. "With thorough discussion on issues we would be able to build consensus on resolving problems of the people," he added.