FATA merger games
The passing of the Supreme Court and High Court (Extension
of Jurisdiction to FATA) Bill 2018 by the National Assembly the other day
promised that the new day anticipated to be dawning for the people of the
tribal areas had finally arrived, and not a moment too soon. Alas that initial
euphoria may prove premature. Concerns are being voiced by different quarters
that the government may seek to delay or dilute the Bill’s provisions as well
as its spirit. The Bill allows the President (on the government’s advice of
course) to delay signing it even if the Senate also passes it. What on earth is
intended to be accomplished by putting such a roadblock in the path of what
should have been a historic first step towards the long neglected people of the
tribal areas finally enjoying all the rights of citizenship they have been
deprived of for long, and even after independence for 70 years? The Bill also
allows the government to apply its provisions selectively and in stages to the
tribal Agencies that constitute FATA. Last but not least, the failure to repeal
the notorious colonial-era FCR holds the risk of the new system of justice (if
and when it is applied) colliding with the antediluvian system of collective
tribal punishment and ‘managing’ security on the frontier that the British
bequeathed as a legacy of their own imperial designs to Pakistan. It is a sad
commentary on our history that the FCR system remained in force all these years
after independence and continued to subject the tribal people to the farce of
‘justice’ being dispensed by Political Agents appointed by the government for
each Agency, and against whose arbitrary verdicts no forum for appeal was
available. And yet when it appeared that repeal of the FCR was an idea whose
time has come, the government has behaved like a shrinking violet in refraining
from consigning it to the dustbin of history where it belongs. The half-measure
envisaged in the Bill, which will result in FATA’s judicial system being
suspended between being neither fish nor fowl, is being viewed by critics as
the government’s intent to thwart meaningful reform to bring FATA into the
national mainstream.
Why is the government bent upon raising hopes that FATA will
emerge into the modern light of day at last only to dash them with the next
breath? It appears that the government is tactically avoiding a break on the
issue with its two allies, the JUI-F of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the PkMAP of
Mehmood Khan Achakzai. Both have publicly and vociferously opposed the merger
of FATA with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, less, it is suspected, because of
any cogent reasons and more as a vested interest in retaining their political
clout in the tribal areas. If so, this appears the proverbial case of the tail
wagging the dog. It is also being speculated that Nawaz Sharif’s current crop
of problems are impinging on the project to mainstream FATA as soon as
possible. Arguably, the phase-wise implementation of the Bill in different Agencies
of FATA may be intended to avoid the complexities of replacing a long established
but unacceptable order with the new one. But logically the clearing of FATA
after the military operations there should if anything have helped accelerate
the process rather than it being deliberately dragged on. If it is political expediency
revolving around keeping the two recalcitrant allies on board and making
concessions to Nawaz Sharif’s current considerations, this is both unfair and
unjust in terms of the tribal people’s long awaited journey out of the
colonial-imposed darkness they have suffered in for too long and into the sunshine
of full citizenship with all its constitutionally mandated rights palette.
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