ISLAMABAD: Peace and development in tribal areas will remain vague until the “black elephant in the black hole” of FATA is identified and reined in, said Senator Farhatullah Babar at a multi-party conference on FATA merger in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The event was organised by the Awami National Party in Islamabad on Thursday.
“Peace and development is also linked to peace in Afghanistan. The guidelines formulated by the Senate had proposed an agreed mechanism for verification of cross border allegations. It must be heeded the policy towards Afghanistan must be revisited to drive away the elephant from the room, he said. Stop treating Afghanistan as the 5th province and treat it with respect as a sovereign country,” he said.
“We must condemn and denounce Trump for blaming Pakistan for US failures in Afghanistan but it should not prevent us from looking inwardly also to chase away the elephant.”
He wondered why the previous decision to extend the jurisdiction of Peshawar High Court had been changed and instead the jurisdiction of Islamabad High Court extended. It seems that policy makers are not bothered about difficulties faced by the litigants of FATA.
The KP Assembly passed unanimous resolutions demanding extension of jurisdiction of PHC to tribal areas and the PHC in a 2014 verdict asked the federal government to make legislation. “It reflected Islamabad’s mindset to foist itself on people of FATA even if symbolically. This mindset derived sadistic pleasure in flaunting Islamabad in relation to any move in tribal areas.”
“It reflects a hidden desire to continue remote control of tribal from Presidency. FATA is remote controlled in times of peace from the Presidency and in times of war by drones remotely operated from Virginia in the US.”
About the merger, he said that keeping in view the administrative, social, cultural, linguistic, political and geographical conditions and that all roads from FATA led into KP merger in the province was most logical.
He said that those political parties which fear that merger will change the drivers of political discourse in FATA and the mosque and the pulpit will no longer dominate the political discourse, were opposed to merger.
About the chief operating officer, he said, “There is a need for clarity on the newly created post of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Who will be the COO and who will appoint him?”
“If a serving general is appointed it will effectively shift the locus of power from Islamabad to Rawalpindi and further militarize instead of mainstream and civilianise tribal areas.”
“The civilian president and the civilian governor KP will be made redundant. The veil of secrecy will thicken and the black hole of tribal areas will become darker. Questions about militants hiding will be raised even more vehemently and no satisfactory answers forthcoming Pakistan will face increasing criticism and isolation,” he said.
He deplored that Mahmood Achakzai referred to independence of India Act, a 1923 tribal jirga and Lord Curzon and Cunningham but he ignored that tribal people had themselves joined Pakistan and Article 1 of the constitution clearly stated that FATA was part of Pakistan. Achakzai’s remarks will make headlines but are far from reality, he said.
Published in Daily Times, September 15th 2017.
