Fata needs constitutional reforms and sustainable economic development with maximum focus on decentralising powers of the political administration to the elected agency councillors besides strengthening the tribes to deal with foreign elements with the official backup.
This was the consensus of the security official, researchers, former government officials and intellectuals who participated in the final session of a workshop on 'The Role of Peace and Democracy in Fata', organised jointly by Area Study Centre (ASC) for Russia, China and Central Asia, Peshawar University and Hans Seidel Foundation of Germany here on March 14-15.
The major issues focused in the deliberations were the constitutional status of tribal areas, relevance of over a century old Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and an equally old administrative system in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the present circumstances and the presence of foreign origin militants there.
Former VC of the Peshawar University and ex-Director of ASC, Dr Muhammad Anwar Khan opened the final session. A former colonel of Pakistan Army hailing from South Waziristan Yaqub Mehsud (Brother of warlord Baitullah Mehsud) talked at length about peace initiatives in Fata. He was firm in his argument that over a century old system for dispensing justice and dealing with the administrative affairs had lost its significance today.
Dr Mehsud argued that the system had a number of evils and corruption was on top of the list. He gave all weight to strengthening the gradual process of empowering the agency councillors in nation-building projects so that tribesmen should be at ease as far as developmental schemes in Fata were concerned.
Arguing for backing up the tribesmen with military power and other tools, he said that this was the only way to flash out foreign origin militants from troubled parts of Fata. In this connection, he cited the example of Ahmadzai tribesmen who, with the full backing of army, had cleaned their area of foreign element in South Waziristan.
Known tribal lawyer, Wali Khan Afridi presented a bird eye view of Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) meant for tribal areas at the beginning of 20th century in 1906. He debated the desirability of FCR with reference to the legal and constitutional system of Pakistan. He was inclined towards replacing FCR with the general laws of the country thus integrating these areas within the main legal stream of Pakistan.
A senior faculty member from ASC Professor Dr Sarfraz Khan focused on special status of Fata: Impediment to Peace and Democracy. He encompasses different areas in his debate starting in 1840 as far as tribal belt was concerned. He told that the special status called as 'excluded areas' in the Government of India Act 1935 to the tribal areas remained operative in the constitutions of Pakistan 1956, 1962 and 1973.
Because of Fata's exclusion from main stream constitutional and political development, he argued, tribal areas remained backward and today this belt had become a regional issue. Explaining, he stated that since the days of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, various elements had turned Fata into a militarised zone.
The present state of lawlessness, he claimed, had turned the matter of tribal areas into a regional issue. Prominent security specialist on Fata affairs and former secretary, Fata security, Brigadier Mehmood Shah (Retd) looked inclined towards retaining the existing system of governance in Fata with gradual modifications in the system in accordance with the need of time.
Colonel Yaqub and former ambassador, Ayaz Wazir bitterly opposed the idea of a joint Pak-Afghan force under UN sanction to supervise security affairs in tribal belt.
They expressed the view that this would legally level the ground for foreign interference in Pakistan. About countering the foreign element in Fata, Brigadier Mehmood Shah, cited three reasons. First, the element of fear, second the greed of money and third the element of sympathy in tribesmen for foreign elements as their Muslim brethren. Former ambassador Ayaz Wazir said the forces that are using tribesmen, as gun fodder must be identified for return of normalcy in tribal belt.
Miss Samina from Department of Philosophy, University of Peshawar expressed her views on reforms in Fata: Perspective of Tribal Women, while Ali Ahmad from a private sector organisation talked about Fata sustainable development plan.
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