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Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA
Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA
By Iqbal Khattak
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2010-12-28
Members of the Tribal Students Union and civil society demonstrate outside the University of Peshawar in June 2010 to demand democratisation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. [Iqbal Khattak]
PESHAWAR – To empower the people in the militancy-plagued Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the federal government has approved municipal committees (MCs) in 14 planned urban hubs.
The move is part of a military and political strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban by socially transforming the region, and recognition that the militancy has changed the region.
Officials plan to create MCs in Ghalanai (Mohmand Agency), Landikotal (Khyber Agency), Kalaya and Ghiljo (Orakzai Agency), Para Chinar and Sadda (Kurram Agency), Miranshah and Mir Ali (North Waziristan), Wana and Sarwakai (South Waziristan), Dara Adamkhel (Frontier Region Kohat), Jandola (Frontier Region Tank) and Darazinda (Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan). The MCs hope to empower local citizens to make decisions on “standardising” life and services.
Khar, Landikotal and Wana will be the first to commission committees because officials consider the three towns more secure than the others.
The move comes after the government approved creation of urban centres in all seven tribal districts in a bid to urbanise and transform the districts.
“It is all about participatory governance under which the tribal people will bring themselves to certain codes and they will gradually adopt urban life,” Abid Majeed, secretary of the Administration and Coordination Department at the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar, told Central Asia Online.
The package includes extension of the Political Parties Act and the reach of the country’s laws to the areas in order to deny open space to extremist voices.
A November 25 notification announced that the Directorate of Local Government “shall frame detailed bylaws for MCs including bylaws on financial and administrative management, enterprise development and market regulation, building codes, legality and penalties and other allied matters.”
In the old system, the federal government gave tribal elders privileges in exchange for loyalty to Islamabad. However, insurgents have killed more than 500 pro-government elders.
The government appears to have decided that the militancy has irreparably damaged the ancient tribal governance system and that the tribes need to adopt modern concepts of rights and responsibilities and check and balances after the army has defeated the militancy.
“The old governance mechanism will no longer work after what the militancy has done to these areas and people,” a senior government official told Central Asia Online, requesting anonymity because he lacked authorisation to discuss the matter.
The government has considered administrative reform of FATA before. Para Chinar, Miranshah and Sadda had self-governance committees in 1961, 1968 and 1990, respectively. However, these were “loose structures.”
Back in 2000, the highest levels of government approved comprehensive reforms for the tribal areas. But the militancy struck, forcing a delay.
In 2005, the government experimented with letting tribes make decisions concerning their lives. However, that programme’s goals went unachieved. “The 2005 experience failed because no authority was granted to these selected and elected councillors,” former councillor Israr Kokikhel from Jamrud town of Khyber Agency told Central Asia Online.
This time, however, MC members will have both authority and responsibility, Abid said. Unlike 2005, they will elect a chair directly. Officials envision a six-member elected MC, plus one additional member each representing the peasant-worker and trader-merchant segments.
They also plan to have the FATA Secretariat nominate four tribal elders for each MC and have government officials sit ex officio on the MCs.
All members except the ex-officio ones will serve three-year terms. In a sharp break from the past, women will be able to join the MCs. Women’s rights activists welcome this move to let women speak for themselves for the first time in tribal society.
Authorities plan to let MCs make decisions on urban development plans, land use, municipal law enforcement, municipal budgets, tax collection, municipal services and other governmental concerns.
But authorities want to tend to certain matters before the MCs can begin work.
Elections to the MCs will “proceed (after) requisite activities such as demarcation of land for urban centres and establishment official facilities,” Muhammad Zahoor, director for Local Government and Rural Development at the FATA Secretariat, told Central Asia Online.
“Although election is the foremost priority, the aforementioned components need to be in place to facilitate the electoral process,” he added, making it appear the government is not rushing to form the MCs before security forces clean out former militant strongholds.
The tribal areas will benefit from the formation of MCs, provided the members indeed have authority, predicted former federal minister Malik Waris Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party from Khyber Agency. “I think participatory governance will bring development to the tribal areas and help people transform,” he told Central Asia Online.
Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA
By Iqbal Khattak
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2010-12-28
Members of the Tribal Students Union and civil society demonstrate outside the University of Peshawar in June 2010 to demand democratisation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. [Iqbal Khattak]
PESHAWAR – To empower the people in the militancy-plagued Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the federal government has approved municipal committees (MCs) in 14 planned urban hubs.
The move is part of a military and political strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban by socially transforming the region, and recognition that the militancy has changed the region.
Officials plan to create MCs in Ghalanai (Mohmand Agency), Landikotal (Khyber Agency), Kalaya and Ghiljo (Orakzai Agency), Para Chinar and Sadda (Kurram Agency), Miranshah and Mir Ali (North Waziristan), Wana and Sarwakai (South Waziristan), Dara Adamkhel (Frontier Region Kohat), Jandola (Frontier Region Tank) and Darazinda (Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan). The MCs hope to empower local citizens to make decisions on “standardising” life and services.
Khar, Landikotal and Wana will be the first to commission committees because officials consider the three towns more secure than the others.
The move comes after the government approved creation of urban centres in all seven tribal districts in a bid to urbanise and transform the districts.
“It is all about participatory governance under which the tribal people will bring themselves to certain codes and they will gradually adopt urban life,” Abid Majeed, secretary of the Administration and Coordination Department at the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar, told Central Asia Online.
The package includes extension of the Political Parties Act and the reach of the country’s laws to the areas in order to deny open space to extremist voices.
A November 25 notification announced that the Directorate of Local Government “shall frame detailed bylaws for MCs including bylaws on financial and administrative management, enterprise development and market regulation, building codes, legality and penalties and other allied matters.”
In the old system, the federal government gave tribal elders privileges in exchange for loyalty to Islamabad. However, insurgents have killed more than 500 pro-government elders.
The government appears to have decided that the militancy has irreparably damaged the ancient tribal governance system and that the tribes need to adopt modern concepts of rights and responsibilities and check and balances after the army has defeated the militancy.
“The old governance mechanism will no longer work after what the militancy has done to these areas and people,” a senior government official told Central Asia Online, requesting anonymity because he lacked authorisation to discuss the matter.
The government has considered administrative reform of FATA before. Para Chinar, Miranshah and Sadda had self-governance committees in 1961, 1968 and 1990, respectively. However, these were “loose structures.”
Back in 2000, the highest levels of government approved comprehensive reforms for the tribal areas. But the militancy struck, forcing a delay.
In 2005, the government experimented with letting tribes make decisions concerning their lives. However, that programme’s goals went unachieved. “The 2005 experience failed because no authority was granted to these selected and elected councillors,” former councillor Israr Kokikhel from Jamrud town of Khyber Agency told Central Asia Online.
This time, however, MC members will have both authority and responsibility, Abid said. Unlike 2005, they will elect a chair directly. Officials envision a six-member elected MC, plus one additional member each representing the peasant-worker and trader-merchant segments.
They also plan to have the FATA Secretariat nominate four tribal elders for each MC and have government officials sit ex officio on the MCs.
All members except the ex-officio ones will serve three-year terms. In a sharp break from the past, women will be able to join the MCs. Women’s rights activists welcome this move to let women speak for themselves for the first time in tribal society.
Authorities plan to let MCs make decisions on urban development plans, land use, municipal law enforcement, municipal budgets, tax collection, municipal services and other governmental concerns.
But authorities want to tend to certain matters before the MCs can begin work.
Elections to the MCs will “proceed (after) requisite activities such as demarcation of land for urban centres and establishment official facilities,” Muhammad Zahoor, director for Local Government and Rural Development at the FATA Secretariat, told Central Asia Online.
“Although election is the foremost priority, the aforementioned components need to be in place to facilitate the electoral process,” he added, making it appear the government is not rushing to form the MCs before security forces clean out former militant strongholds.
The tribal areas will benefit from the formation of MCs, provided the members indeed have authority, predicted former federal minister Malik Waris Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party from Khyber Agency. “I think participatory governance will bring development to the tribal areas and help people transform,” he told Central Asia Online.
Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA
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