News Analysis: Pakistan plans reforms in militancy-hit tribal regions

A high level committee in Pakistan is working on comprehensive reforms to bring the country's tribal regions to the national mainstream as violent extremism and terrorism in nearly a decade has badly disrupted the lives of the tribal people.

The reforms include an important suggestion to merge the militancy-hit tribal areas into the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) so they have representation in the provincial assembly.

Presently the Federally Administered Tribal Areas or FATAs do not have representation in the provincial assembly. However, the National Assembly and the Senate have members from the tribal regions.

Another proposal is that a FATA elected executive council should be formed to elect the chief executive like provincial chief ministers.

The idea behind the government move is to remove the sense of deprivation among the people in FATAs as the activities of armed groups have damaged their traditional system of "jirga" or council of elders.

Jirga has long been the only accepted way to settle disputes among the tribesmen; however, hundreds of tribal elders have been killed in target attacks allegedly by the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups, disrupting the tradition.

There are high hopes for the revival of the traditional jirga system as a series of major military operations have cleared all tribal regions of the Taliban and other Pakistani and foreign militants, while the writ of the local authorities has been established.

Now the government plan to put in place reforms could bring the tribal regions at par with the other parts of the country.

The tribal regions, six of which border Afghanistan, are controlled directly by the center through the governor of KPK and are governed under the British-era Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) that give more powers to the administrative officers known as Political Agents.

Under the FCR system, the governor's decision cannot be challenged, and now the establishment of a court means part of the reforms for the tribesmen to have the right to appeal.

Adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz is heading the special committee, which is now in the process of consultations with the tribal people and different segments of society to seek their input and evolve a larger consensus on the reforms.

Separately, lawmakers from the tribal areas have submitted a bill in the national parliament that mainly suggests FATAs merger into KPK, giving the tribal areas a status of a province or forming an elected council of FATAs in the pattern of provincial assemblies.

"This Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to give protection to the people of Tribal Areas as regards human rights, their equal treatment before the law and enjoyment of all protections provided in the constitution and thus bringing the people of Tribal Areas to the mainstream," the text of bill reads.

Alhaj Shah Jee Gul Afridi, the leader of the FATA MP group, said tribal lawmakers are hopeful to win a majority support in parliament for their private bill.

"We want a status for FATA as it has been a center of humiliation for Pakistan in the world. We do not want the label to remain attached to us," Haji Gul told Xinhua. He also urged all political parties to support their bill.

Support for the proposed reforms has substantially grown as a vast majority in the tribal regions wants improvement in the image of their areas tarnished by the activities of armed groups there. These groups had been blamed for terrorism across the country and even on the other side of the border into Afghanistan. Enditem