ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party Senator Farhatullah Babar on Saturday said the greatest obstacle in mainstreaming FATA is the civil-military grip on the tribal areas.
“Once this stranglehold was broken all other facets of the reforms package whether merger in KPK, local governments and extending jurisdiction of superior courts will automatically fall in place.”
He was speaking at the All Parties Conference on FATA Reforms Package at a hotel in Islamabad.
The conference, organised by FATA lawmakers, was attended by Shahjee Gul Afridi, Advisor to PM Zafarullah Khan, KP Speaker Asad Qaiser, ANP lawmaker Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Tariqullah, Pakistan Muslim League legislator Ajmal Wazir, ANP leaders Mian Iftikhar Hussain and Zahid Khan, Qaumi Watan Party leader Hashim Babar, Peshawar Zalmay Manager Javed Afridi, Senators Sajjad Turi and Mir Kabir Shahi and Advocate Latif Afridi.
The reforms package announced in August last year appeared more of a political stunt than a real effort at mainstreaming the tribal areas, Babar said. It took nine months for the cabinet to approve the package on March 2 this year but the summary to seek the approval of the president was lying in the PM’s House, he said.
The thrust of the package was towards further militarization of the area instead of de-militarization, he said and proposed a 6-point formula to loosen the grip of civil-military bureaucratic complex on FATA.
First, the auditor general of Pakistan must be immediately authorised to carry out an audit of the foreign aid received for the tribal areas and the monies spent by the bureaucracy during the past 10 years.
Presently, committees of parliament, media and NGOs were not allowed to visit the tribal areas on the pretext of the fragile security situation and development funds appeared to sink into a bottomless black hole. Second, the elected representatives should be involved in ensuring accountability, transparency and oversight, he said.
The 10-year developmental package costing Rs 800 billion must not be left entirely in the hands of civil-military bureaucracy.
Third, the policy committee and implementation committee should include elected representatives.
If the chief secretary and corps commander can be members of these committees why not elected representatives, he asked?
Fourth, the levies force in the tribal areas should be brought at par with the police and placed under the formal command of senior police officers instead of the political agent and military commander as at present.
According to the reforms package the levies strength will be increased to nearly 35,000 from 12,000 which is almost half of the KP police strength. If the tribal areas are to be merged in KP in five years it is necessary to merge the levies in the police, he said.
Fifth, he said that the civil military bureaucracy urge the Presidency to impose regulations that suited their interests and not the interest of the people. This can be check mated by bringing into parliament the laws pertaining to local governments and Riwaj Act, replacing FCR, into the Parliament instead of enforcing them through a presidential decree without debate and scrutiny.
Sixth, he said Pakistan must revisit its Afghan policy for carrying out reforms in tribal areas adding, “There were several unanswered questions with regard to our Afghan policy dictated by the security establishment that needed to be answered.”
