IPS Seminar: Ill-conceived national and international policies behind FATA vows

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad held a seminar titled “FATA: Current Situation, Implications and the Way Forward” on 10 May 2012 which was addressed by Ambassador (Retd) Ayaz Wazir, Air Commodore (Retd) Khalid Iqbal, Barrister Zafrullah Khan and DG-IPS Khalid Rahman.

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad held a seminar titled “FATA: Current Situation, Implications and the Way Forward” on 10 May 2012 which was addressed by Ambassador (Retd) Ayaz Wazir, Air Commodore (Retd) Khalid Iqbal, Barrister Zafrullah Khan and DG-IPS Khalid Rahman.

Speakers of the seminar appeared to be in agreement after a thorough survey of political, security and legal dimensions of the situation that people of Pakistan’s tribal areas cannot be blamed on any count for whatever was happening in the country, region or the world; they were actually paying the price of ill-conceived, immature and poorly executed national and international policies.

Setting the stage, DG IPS Khalid Rahman orientated the participants with the backdrop of the current state of affairs in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and informed that the region comprising the seven agencies and six frontier regions and with a population of approximately four million, according to official figures, has always remained ignored in terms of provision of basic human needs and infrastructure. The area also lags, in terms of social security, behind some of the most underdeveloped areas in the world and whatever was ever provided by the previous governments has been ruined and demolished during the current turmoil. He highlighted that according to available figures, there was only one hospital bed for 2180 individuals and one doctor for 7670 persons in FATA.

“There is every possibility that actual situation may even be worse” he said

Talking on the political dimension of the issue, former ambassador Ayaz Wazir remarked that the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had made three commitments with the people of the tribal areas during his visit to the area in 1948, namely: all troops will be withdrawn from the area; steps will be taken for uplift of the population through provision of better services and opportunities without intervening into their internal affairs; and if any change has to be made in the status quo, it will be brought in place in consultation with the people of the area.

“The former military ruler has, unfortunately, shattered all three”, he lamented.

Criticizing the current arrangement between the Federation and the region he said that there was no involvement of the people of FATA and even their political representatives in any of the affairs related to the area and its population.

Shedding light on the security dimension, Brigadier (R) Said Nazir said that neither the people of FATA, which is a land-locked region, were responsible for the arrival of those foreigners who were blamed to have sanctuaries there, nor have they given shelter to them. Pakistan Army was inducted in the area in 2003 in the name of four to five hundred ‘sleeping jihadis’ while they could have been taken care of, if they were causing any concerns, through local administration and the 40,000 personnel of FC. In consequence of over 5,500 fighter jet sorties, use of heavy artillery, over 300 hundred drone strikes using the most lethal hellfire missiles, the problem has only aggravated and was becoming increasingly out of control.

“Today the number of insurgents has increased from 500 to over 6000 fighting with over one hundred thousand army and 40,000 FC personnel and the whole area has turned into a battlefield”, he deplored.

Reminding the sacrifices and role of the people of FATA for Pakistan he underlined that despite conceding over 35000 deaths, even more injuries and over one million persons being rendered IDPs, the people of FATA have never raised a foreign flag or chanted a foreign slogan.

Presenting the legal dimension of the issue Barrister Zafrullah Khan said that among the vows to effectively amend the ‘draconian’ Frontier Crimes Regulation of 1901, the present government has introduced even more inhumane and more unjust laws, i.e. Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011. He told the audience that these regulations had rendered the Constitutional guarantees meaningless by providing that anyone in any part of the country may be arrested for indefinite period on mere suspicion and that a person so detained would not have the right to engage a lawyer or to plead his case before a judicial forum. Contrary to all principles of justice and sanity, the evidence “received and prepared” by the interning authority was not only admissible under this law but also is sufficient for incriminating a person.

Air Commodore (R) Khalid Iqbal, who was moderating the session concluded the discussion saying that a number of internal and external factors caused the sorry state of affairs in the region for which every citizen of Pakistan was concerned and there was a need to adopt an incremental approach keeping in view the peculiarities of the region to address the crises in FATA.