NUML

National University of Modern Languages

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Group member: Shamraiz Mehmood (11692)

Saqib Siddique (11701)
Faisal Hayat khan (11696)
Class: BSSE-IV B (Evening)
Session: Spring 2019
Subject: TRW
Submitted To: Sir Safee Ullah Safee
Dated: 17th-May-2019

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Cover Letter

Title: FATA REFORM ISSUES

Receiver: Sir Safee Ullah Safee

Purpose of Report: The purpose of this study is to highlight the issue

of fata reforms after merging with KPK province.

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 Abstract

This study is an attempt of FATA merge with KPK. These areas of Pakistan are
adjacent with Afghanistan. FATA have been remained under developed economically
and educationally due to the mode of governess which is the root cause of revolt in
the area. The analysis of data reveals the fact that after fencing there will be peace
surety in these areas. The data suggest that merger will increase the number
representatives of KPK in the national Assembly.

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Introduction
This report highlights the issue of fata reforms after merging with KPK province. There
were several issues behind merging FATA with KPK which includes judicial system,
terrorism, no education, poor health facilities that were causing many problems for
locals. Before merging peoples were facing FCR (frontier crime regulation) which was
intruding the locals to access the high court. The parliament of Pakistan can play no
role in the affairs of FATA. According to ARTICLE (247) of the Pakistan constitution
provides that no act of parliament applies to fata unless the PM consents. The reason
behind the terrorism in fata was no fencing in border between Pak and AFGNISTAN
.there was a lot of bloodshed because of terrorism. There was no education and
development due to terrorism. Peoples were facing poor health facilities.in this report
we are discussing the fata reform issues. We collect the data from different articles and
newspapers and websites. The aim behind this report was to let the people know about
the reforming issues of fata.

Background
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) consists of six FRs (frontier regions) and
seven agencies, which are directly under the control of Federal government, having its
own members of national assembly (MNA). The federal government use Frontier
Crimes Regulations (FCR) as a set of laws to govern FATA. These areas are surrounded
from east and south by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Baluchistan, while the
neighbors of the FATA in west and north are Paktika provinces of Afghanistan across
Durand line. Total area of FATA 27,220 Sq.km and total population according to 2016
estimate is 4,800,883 persons with density of 163 persons per square kilometer. Almost
all the locals of FATA are Pashtuns, while KPK was inhabited by multi-linguistics
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groups. The people of FATA have strong ties with the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
specially the Pashtuns tribes amongst the others Khyber

Map: 1 Admin Units of Pakistan and Number of seats in NA

Analysis
We collected data from different newspapers and websites which shows following
results.

An article on cscr.pk there is a topic named as Merger of FATA: Possible Outcomes

and Reforms which states that, “This merger will ensure that that the judiciary,
bureaucracy, and all other relevant state organs will be able to function in the region
and hence ensure a wave of transformation from within. This has been long overdue as
it would allow the people of the region to attain a similar social status as their provincial
brethren. Moreover, it will rid FATA from the dreaded FCR rule, which has rightfully
been known as the ‘black law’ in the region as it represents the last vestiges of the
British colonialism”.

There is another topic related to fata merge issue on tribune.com.pk which states that
“There is a lot of opportunities waiting for the people of Fata, the benefits of which
can be harvested if the challenges beyond the merger are handled carefully. Here is a
brief of those opportunities and challenges. The K-P Assembly will get 23 more seats
after the merger. This will increase the role of the province in the national level
decision-making and the bargaining power in terms of resource allocation.
Socioeconomic development of areas merged with K-P will create thousands of jobs
in the field of education, health, water supply schemes, power supply, mineral
development programs and citizen losses compensation programmed. The
establishment of industrial zones with special incentives will attract investors from
every part of the country, which will also create technical and managerial jobs.

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Linking these areas with CPEC will gain the attention of investors from China and
other countries and regions such as Russia and Central Asia. There can be mainly two
challenges related to post Fata-K-P merger scenario. First, the US drone strikes will
create a new situation for the civil-military establishment of Pakistan. The people of
K-P may demand strong action against such strikes, remember that the Peshawar High
Court had already declared drone strikes illegal in 2013.The second challenge will be
the India and Afghanistan supported insurgency. Both countries have been already
found involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan, particularly in K-P and Balochistan.
Since the merger is against the wishes of the government and people of Afghanistan
due to their claim over the northern areas of Pakistan, a new wave of Indo-Afghan
sponsored terrorism is likely to emerge.

In another article in dawn news it was stated that “A multiparty conference has
demanded of the government to withdraw army troops from the merged districts of
former Fata and empower police and Levies to maintain law and order situation in the
area. The participants of the conference alleged that federal and provincial governments
had started pre-poll rigging in the seven tribal districts ahead of elections for the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. They asked the government to either take army troops back
to barracks or deploy them along the border”.

Another article of nation.com.pk states that, “The area that was already lagging behind
in almost all development indicators further suffered due to militancy in the recent past.
During the decade long militancy the area suffered both in terms of men and material.
The infrastructure got damaged and the area saw a huge mass displacement as a result
of militant activities and subsequent military operations. Seventy three percent of the
people are living below poverty line in the war-stricken area”.

Another article of Aljazeera.com state that The PTM in Pakistan. The PTM also called
for all accusations of extrajudicial killing to be investigated independently and
demanded the practice of enforced disappearances - a legal term coined to explain
abductions allegedly carried out by the Pakistan Army - to come to an end. Moreover,
Pashteen and his supporters started pressuring the Pakistani government to reform the
draconian laws that govern the tribal belt that violate basic human rights, such as the
law of collective responsibility which the Pakistani state routinely uses against locals
from the tribal belt - punishing entire families, villages and tribes for the crimes of one
person In one public briefing, the military media spokesperson accused the PTM of
working on "an anti-Pakistan agenda" with the help of foreign hostile governments - a
tactic often used by the Pakistani military to discredit its critics.

Another article of THE NATION state that Afghan border fencing insure peace in
fata.” The fencing of 2,611 km long Pak-Afghan border would be completed by

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December 2019, Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major
General Asif Ghafoor said Saturday. In a tweet, he said the work on forts and fence
continued on Pak-Afghan border as 233 of 843 forts and fencing of 802 out of 1,200
kilometer’s priority one areas had been completed. He said the border fencing would
benefit peaceful people of the two countries, besides restricting terrorists.

Another article of HERALD NEE the historic constitutional and legislative changes
that have brought about Fata’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are a first step in the
right direction, but due to complexities, intricacies and numerous hurdlesiming at
speedy completion of the work in priority one areas, he added. To achieve this, special
grants in aid should be allocated for the coming 10 to 15 years under a proper
monitoring mechanism to rebuild and renovate the basic communication and civic
infrastructure in Fata. More say for the representatives of Fata in policymaking about
the tribal areas should be given imminent and pivotal importance. In addition to all this,
the promised reforms should be implemented phase-wise and in a transparent manner.

Conclusion
After exploring these articles we came to know that there are a lot of things going on
in FATA after merging with KPK. First of all the FCR rule will be omitted from FATA.
KPK will have 23 extra seats in assembly. People will get better health facilities, power
supply, mineral development, jobs etc. But there will be a lot of challenges waiting for
them as India and Afghanistan were after FATA so after the merge the amount of
terrorism is likely to increase in these areas. In a multiparty conference it was also
demanded that to remove the army troops from former FATA and empower police and
levies to maintain law and order but this step might increase terrorism rate in FATA.
Due to militancy in FATA, FATA suffered both in terms of men and resources and
their infrastructure was damaged a lot and 73 percent of people are living below poverty
in war-stricken area. So, it has been concluded that there are a lot of good things that
are about to happen in FATA but there are also a lot of challenges which are waiting
for FATA.

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References

1. An article on cscr.pk topic named as Merger of FATA: Possible Outcomes and

Reforms on November 21 2018.
2. An article of dawn news topic named as on February 3 2019.
3. An article of Aljazeera.com named as The PTM in Pakistan on march 5 2019
4. An article in dawn news published December 24 2018
5. An article of nation.com.pk published November 2018