An all-party conference in Peshawar demanded full rights for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, in the immediate neighbourhood of Afghanistan, like political parties extending their role, repeal of the colonial Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and a judicial dispensation under Pakistan’s Supreme Court among other things. Last week lawmakers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA called on President Asif Ali Zardari with identical demands and the president assured them the PPP government is already working on giving financial and internal autonomy of the region like Gilgit-Baltistan. In fact the PPP government took the first initiative by scrapping the FCR and making room for all political parties to operate in this difficult hilly tract area that has so far been nominally controlled by the Federal government and the president alone has the authority to amend rules in FATA. Pakistan’s constitution is also applicable through the same FCR as was left by British in 1901. Such lawless conditions give the people of the region, the poorest of the poor, have promoted religious extremism and terrorism. Their representation in parliament is nothing less than a joke because they ‘elect’ 12 for the National Assembly who form the electoral college for eight members to the Senate. This ‘election’ seems a farce as big landlords (Maliks) alone have represented the people of FATA who possess money and can buy their ‘election’ to parliament. Tribesmen were given the right to vote in the 1997 general elections. Prior to this they were selected by tribal elders. As for the political agents, they wield unfettered powers who have a legal authority to collectively punish a whole tribe under the FCR that are the most inhuman penalty that shows how the colonial masters perpetrated their repression on human beings. Fata as a region of seven agencies from North Waziristan to Khyber needs immediate measures to mitigate the sufferings of about 10 million people, who yearn to get their constitutional, political and socio-economic rights in addition to judicial dispensation within the ambit of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. These rights are as inalienable as of the people of Pakistan elsewhere. Such a remedy can be done within an administrative solution of establishing a new province of Pakistan which has its own assembly whose members are chosen by its people in an independent manner and free will. Likewise, FATA must have its own high court, police in place of Khasdars and with a due share in the National Finance Commission’s divisible pool. With rich natural resources, blooming forestry and eye-catching scenic beauty, the region is endowed with all the potential to develop its own industry and boost agricultural productivity. With Pakistan’s constitution guaranteeing autonomy to other provinces, the province of FATA can be established and this is what we expect of the ruling PPP to do and do it immediately.
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