Printed in THE NEWS

The solution for FATA



Part I

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Muhammad Jan Mahsud

In his article "The only solution for FATA" published on these pages on May 10, Mr Khalid Aziz has highlighted the critical situation of FATA. Mr Aziz has a vast experience in FATA administration, and despite that he is either unaware of the ground situation or is deliberately shying away from calling a spade a spade. The issue of FATA is not that simple as is projected these days in the media. It is a complex issue with all the real players sitting behind the curtain and only the stooges are in the field. Nobody ever tried to look into the background of the problems faced by FATA. These problems are as old and deep as FATA itself is. Pakistan came into being in 1947 as an independent and sovereign state, but FATA was left in its pre-independence state and the status quo still remains.

Before independence, British rule had been extended to the whole of the Subcontinent, except FATA which was then, and also at present, governed through political agents. The rule of Political Agent in terms of management and administration was so successful that we cannot find its parallel in the settled areas throughout the of Pakistan. The administration and its apparatus were so powerful that no one could hide after committing a crime. This was an area equal in size to almost half of the NWFP but its law and order record was better than that of a single police station of the settled areas. In the tribal system no crime can escape justice. For a petty crime of an individual, the whole tribe was answerable until the production of the criminal.

However, this system was destroyed through a well thought out plan. Firstly, the state failed to develop the basic infrastructure in term of communication, education and health facilities during the sixty years of Pakistan. It is imperative to look into the background and the events that brought FATA to its present situation. The educational, health and other developmental projects were given on loyalty basis rather than on the basis of need. These projects were used as personal properties for receiving handsome amounts every month under the head of bad services on the one hand and a reasonable share of, say, a teacher's salary on the other. The teacher was guaranteed to receive the remaining salary at his home without attending the school. In this way the tribal people were deprived of education, except for the few who could afford it in the settled districts.

The maliks and tribal chieftains were the beneficiaries until the end of the Cold War era. During this time, in the absence of school education, the majority of youths enrolled themselves in mosques and madrasas, thanks to the generous help and support provided by Gen Zia-ul-Haq. The malik was quietly cut down to size. This situation was followed by a wave of lawlessness until the complete erosion of the malik's authority. Many people took law and order in their own hands under the patronage of the administration. Influential tribal chieftains and maliks were eliminated through targeted killings. The second tier of tribal chieftains and maliks, seeing the fate of their seniors, fled the areas for their lives.

Thus, a vacuum was created which, in the absence of political forces, was filled by a new breed of leaders with the background of madrasa education, who spread their influence in a complete illiterate society. They introduced a new culture and spread a distinct version of the faith, with special emphasis on a few subjects. In the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan deployed its troops in the tribal areas, in violation of tradition and without a treaty.

Traditionally, every a tribal can hold a gun but the one who was fortunate enough to hold a pen, instead threw the gun and got educated, never to hold the gun again. But those unfortunate who could not make it to the schools, instead took the gun and are still holding it, and shall be holding it, thanks to the return of the dark ages that is engulfing the whole of the tribal belt. Every school built during the past sixty years in the tribal area is either does not exist physically or has been turned in to a heap of rubbles. Their stones, bricks and even scrap have been sold, along with the scrap of the few factories and bridges which were built in the vast area.

This phenomenal appearance of the gun-totting young men and the disappearance of the tribal system apparatus (the maliks/chieftains) is in fact deeply-rooted in the very creation of FATA, firstly by our colonial masters and then its subsequent continuation by our coloured masters, the political agents, the chief secretaries and the governors. The purpose for which the status of the area was maintained, took no time due to its peculiar condition and location to convert it into a battleground for others. The pre-cold war era culminated in the defeat and subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union thanks to FATA, where this 'big game' was played. And now once again the 'Great Game' is being played on this soil.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=113959