It increasingly appears that the government has decided to merge Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mainly because it is administratively convenient to Islamabad. The final report of the Fata Reforms Committee also rules out any referendum in the concerned seven tribal agencies on the question of merger. Insofar as the future of the Fata is concerned, the committee was tasked to look into four options: maintain status quo but introduce judicial and administrative reforms; create a Fata council on the pattern of Gilgit-Baltistan; create a separate province; and merge Fata with KP. The said recommendations made by the committee would be presented to the federal cabinet at its next meeting, and should it endorse them these would be enforced through a constitutional amendment. The question whether the government's move to merge Fata with KP enjoys consensual support of the tribesmen has no easy answer. There are doubts - a reality as much reflected from aborted consultative seminar last month and as now from the media briefing given by concerned federal minister Lieutenant General Abdul Qadir Baloch (Retd). At the seminar hosted last month by KP Governor Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, the tribal maliks tore down copies of the reforms committee insisting that instead of a merger the government should end corruption, improve law and order situation, build schools and colleges and provide jobs to tribesmen. The minister too conceded that although there is an 'overwhelming' support for a merger in the tribal agencies two political parties, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, want a referendum. "But we are against this idea because if a referendum is held over the political future of Fata then there could be similar demands for Hazara Division in KP, southern Punjab and Karachi - so this may open a Pandora's Box," argues the minister.
Given the fundamental difference between the issues of mainstreaming tribal areas, which remain trapped in a colonial socio-political mindset, and the occasional politically-motivated campaigns for more provinces the position taken by the government offends logic. It smacks of escaping through the backdoor of least resistance. The report suggests that jurisdiction of Supreme Court and high courts should be extended to Fata, but at the same time it upholds supremacy of the Riwaj Act, which tends to stand in the way of superior courts' autonomy to give their decisions. In fact, the Riwaj Act ordains any parallel system of adjudication. And then Fata-KP merger would lead to creating yet another distinct administrative group in the province, the other two already in existence being the settled areas and the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA). And then there is the five-year transition period recommended for the proposed merger and a 10-year development package to be introduced for all of Fata. The question is how would the proposed merger plan resist outside pressures, likely to be exerted by anti-merger tribal maliks and JUI (F) and PkMAP, who in their own right enjoy more support in tribal region than others, and thus persevere all through the transition period? That Fata should be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province just because it is administratively convenient or to appease proponents of 'Pashtun nationalism' is no wise move for it would undermine the spirit of federalism. Given that the entire exercise is geared at pulling the tribal region out of its backwardness and underdevelopment and needs to be mainstreamed then instead of merging it with KP it should be 'merged' with Pakistan as a new unit of the federation.