Numerous research studies have proved that poverty is the root cause of extremism and terrorism. A poor and hungry person has nothing to lose and in a state of desperation would risk his very life to get what he wants.
This is best illustrated by what has been happening in FATA. Due to years of persistent neglect by successive governments, indescribable poverty is the fate of this unfortunate area. No wonder, FATA has become a fertile breeding ground for terrorism, with an endless supply of suicide bombers striking out of the area to rain death and destruction in different parts of Pakistan.
Statistics and figures tell their own story. Knowledgeable quarters claim that over 67 per cent of FATA's population is living below the poverty line. Tragically, this ratio is at par with Congo and Liberia, two of the poorest nations in the world. Education and health facilities are scarce and job opportunities non-existent.
FATA is a special area which is controlled by the Federal government through the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions. From the beginning the FATA region has been treated like a step child by various governments in Islamabad. Both population and area-wise FATA is bigger than AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), but in budget allocations its share is always much less. This is best illustrated by the fact that during the last five years, FATA was given only Rs. 91 billion as compared to Rs. 207 billion for AJK and Rs. 71 billion for GB whose population is one-fourth of FATA.
Comparative figures for public sector spending in FATA as compared to AJK are also revealing. As is well known, AJK has its own local resources, but it was given a whopping Rs. 153 billion during the last five years for operational expenditure such as salaries of regular staff and maintenance of the service delivery network, mostly education and health. But FATA, whose needs are much greater in all sectors of society, was given only Rs. 46 billion for paying salaries of regular staff and maintenance of the service delivery network. This translates into FATA having fewer number of schools, colleges, hospitals, water supply and sanitation schemes and roads, but it is also starved of essential funds to expand the social sector infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.
According to available figures of government staff strength in FATA, the number of teachers, paramedics, public health and other menial staff is over 51,000. It is clear that this number is much less than what is required to meet the multifarious needs of the population of the area. If the federal government allocates more budget commensurate with the population of FATA, not only will the public staff strength go up by four times, providing employment to two-thirds of the 341,114 households in the region; more development funds will also mean more educational, health and allied service delivery institutions for the benefit of inhabitants of the area.
Turning to development funds, during the last five years, FATA got only Rs. 45 billion. This amount is 64 per cent less than that provided to GB during the same period. If population is taken as the benchmark, FATA should have got Rs. 124 billion instead of Rs. 45 billion. This would have translated into improved livelihood, more education and reduced poverty and extremism. And one would have rarely heard of suicide by an employed person from FATA.
This is not the only example of neglect and discrimination against FATA. We can refer here to the lapsing of funds provided to FATA by the Federal government. It is a strange bureaucratic decision that while AJK and GB have their own special accounts and the funds transferred to both of them are non-lapsable even if they remained unspent during a financial year, the unspent funds of FATA are lapsed and are returned to the federal government.
Given this policy of open discrimination, it is easy to see why the people of FATA are poor and the young people of the region feel increasingly alienated and turn to extremism in retaliation. But this simple fact is not understood by the wise heads sitting in Islamabad who continue to subject FATA to crass neglect.
This attitude, perhaps, springs from the fact that FATA lacks a political identity and without a constitutionally mandated political structure. Unlike AJK and GB which have a full-fledged governmental set-up with chief minister, ministers and local bodies, FATA has no assembly, no local government and even no bank account.
Worse still, the laws are also different for FATA. Despite repeated announcements, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) has not yet been done away with. These laws are a legacy of colonial days and should have been scrapped after independence. But this was not done. Why have different laws for FATA? Isn't this a clear violation of Article 25 of the Constitution? Why is the Constitution of Pakistan along with its civil and criminal laws not extended to FATA?
It seems that the Federal government has deliberately kept FATA economically backward and politically disenfranchised so that it can keep exploiting the region through political agents and the so-called elected representatives who are responsible for the status quo in the region. Investment in posting of PAs in FATA and horse-trading in the elections are open secrets. FATA will remain a bleeding wound until its root-cause is eradicated. If the rights of the people of FATA are restored and a comprehensive development plan is undertaken, there will be no place for exploitation in an educated, enlightened and prosperous FATA.
The Pakhtun belt in general, and the tribal belt in particular, has become a battle ground for international forces. The US, India, Israel, Russia, the Arabs and Iranians all have a role in what has been going on in the region. Our own agencies play their own games. All this plays into the hands of extremists elements who exploit both external forces and the local population for their own selfish ends.
The violence and extremism in FATA can only be uprooted through education and economic revival. The need is to launch short and long-term socio-economic development plans to generate new employment opportunities for the young men who in the absence of viable economic options join the league of suicide bombers and grenade throwers. The situation can go from bad to worse if the status quo is maintained and policies not changed. It is time to bring FATA into the national mainstream.

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