Of the multiple challenges facing the people of Pakistan, the least the federal government is bothered about the plight of the tribal communities facing confusion and dislocation ever since FATA was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa four years ago.
Among the unfortunate forced into a livelihood against their wishes are the people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The past four years have been a daily torture for them as Pakistan in 2018, under its 25th Amendment, decided to merge FATA with KPK, to make reformations per government convenience and bring them within constitutional jurisdiction.
Since then there has been a public outcry against the decision. The movement to overturn this merger is simmering fast despite strict measures being enforced to silence the activists. Though the establishment has warned of serious consequences against those fuelling these campaigns, the crusade is growing stronger with local civilian bodies, elders from Jirgas, and influential local leaders joining the battle to overturn the KPK-FATA merger or at least allotting greater autonomy to the ex-FATA regions. Leaders of the campaign are Pashtun Tahafuzz Movement (PTM), FATA Grand Alliance, and Mohmand Grand Jirga, among others.
Tribal systems were simple; decisions taken provided quick redressal and were according to local customs. Locals prefer Jirga over the judiciary. With Pakistan wanting greater control over them, the people are suspicious that a greater agenda is at play. They are afraid to become another helpless appendage of Pakistan, just like Gilgit-Baltistan or Pakistan-occupied Jammu-Kashmir.
Today the government has forgotten all the promises it made to the people of FATA before the move, such as allotting developmental funds, education budget, better living conditions, etc.
Land disputes have converted civilian cases into criminal cases. There are multiple claims over a single piece of land. And because there are no land records, courts can also not settle such disputes. People don’t know who to go to with their issues.
The literacy level in the region is extremely low, in some places zero percent. The citizens have no idea how the new system works; documentary evidence or written communication has no importance to them. The crime rate and drug trafficking in this chaotic time are at their peak as troublemaking elements of society are using this messy situation to their advantage. Most of the policemen do not know the rules of their own department and act on a whim. Such is the pathetic state of affairs. That is how powerless and failed the system is.
Large swathes of disputed land are being used by terror outfits. The dreams of riches and prosperity shown to the common man were sweet lies. The people are frustrated and dismayed.
Pak Army has the supreme power here and that is a primary cause of the resentment. The behavior of armed personnel is offensive and objectionable, especially to women. The army is solidly entrenched in FATA, and set against both radical elements like Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), and civilian movements like the PTM. Therefore human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances are common since the merger.
A regulation circulated in 2011 allows internment centers to hold suspects “to incapacitate him from committing any offense or further offenses”, or if internment is “expedient for peace in the defined area.” Such rules are made only to benefit the Army and the government.
To date, the federal government has released only PKR 5 billion out of the allocated PKR 55 billion for FATA’s tribal districts’ development. The people are grief and poverty-stricken. The health sector exists only in the papers. Temporarily Displaced Persons are the at bottom of the hierarchy, living worse than animals.
FATA was made a tax haven to ensure that businesses would set up factories there. But the only beneficiaries are the businessmen from outside who have simply made shell companies or registered themselves in FATA while continuing to operate in Punjab, Sindh, or KPK. Since the present situation suits the federal administration well, they censor the news and continue atrocities on locals who try to voice their concerns for FATA. Locals have demanded 3G and 4G mobile services but the army has not permitted it fearing backlash from international communities.
The establishment is hiding behind its argument that it is only TTP (considered a violent anti-national terrorist organization) that wants the reversal of the merger. Pakistan will not benefit from this dismissive behavior towards FATA. The voices for independence from Pakistan are already too loud.