Introduction
Pakistan has been engaged in fighting resurgent terrorists and militants for more than a decade. Over these years, some specific anti-terrorism and counter-militancy operations have been vigorously conducted in the terror-infested tribal areas. During and/or after these operations, particular peace accords between the government and terrorists were also signed in order to bring about and ensure lasting peace in the region. Despite these peace agreements, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other outlawed assorted terrorist and militant groups blatantly kept targeting religious, educational institutions, army installations, airports and residents. At that critical juncture, the most shocking terrorist attack was conducted by the TTP on the Army Public School in Peshawar on 16 December 2014 killing 145 people, including 132 school children aged between eight and eighteen years. At that critical moment, both the civilian and military leadership agreed to vigorously conduct a counter-terrorism and counter-militancy operation codenamed as Zarb-e-Azb aimed at permanently flushing out the outlawed TTP.
According to the reports released by the ISPR during the course of Zarb-e-Azb, the operation has successfully achieved its main objective by rooting out the hideouts and training centers of the TTP in the terror-ravaged tribal areas. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), “prior to the operation militant attacks had peaked to 154 a month in Pakistan, but this count has now dropped more than 50% to 71 attacks a month.”i In this post, I argue that in order to maintain this reduction in terrorism, fanaticism, militancy and extremism, the civilian government should come forward and craft needed policies aimed at empowering the tribal people politically, economically and educationally.
It is time for the civilian government to come forward and seriously discharge its constitutional duties. Arguably, FATA desperately needs political, administrative and socio-economic reforms so that the long-neglected tribal people would avoid joining terrorist and militants groups. If these needed reforms are not introduced prudently, the area would be the breeding ground of hardened terrorists and militants to regroup and resurface, thus challenging the writ of the state. The article provides a bird’s eye view of the long-lasting political, administrative, economic, educational and constitutional issues of FATA. The piece also provides a pragmatic way forward to bring FATA at par with the rest of the country, thereby impeding terrorists and militants from attracting or indoctrinating the disgruntled people toward their nefarious designs.
Before the ongoing operation, similar comprehensive operations were also successfully carried out in Bajaur, Swat, Waziristan, Orakzai and Mohmand. Now the time has come for civil society to discharge its constitutional duty and maintain law and order through activism and anti-radicalisation techniques geared towards eradicating the menace of terrorism at its very roots. Some vexing questions nonetheless remain: does the civilian government have the pragmatic will, capacity and adequate competence to keep hard-core terrorists at bay and introduce effective governance? And what sorts of measures are required for the political stability, economically prosperity and effectiveness of the security of FATA’s seven Agencies (Tribal Districts) and six Frontier Regions?
Dismal education condition of FATA
Despite the paramount importance of education in this globalised world, the government has thus far turned a blind eye to providing free, compulsory and quality education to the long-neglected people of FATA. The area is lagging far behind in terms of education as seen from the facts and figures available. Unfortunately, “it does not have a single university, and its literacy rate is around 22% which is well below the nationwide rate of 56 percent.”ii Alarmingly, according to a report issued by the Shaoor Foundation for Education and Awareness (SFEA), the literacy rate among women in tribal areas is low and stagnant at a mere 3 percent.iii The report concludes the factors hampering the process of education as inaccessibility to schools, poor quality of education, low retention rate, militancy, displacements and custom and traditions prevalent in those areas.
Rampaging militants and terrorists are also hell bent upon bombing schools in FATA. Latest media reports confirm that “the FATA Secretariat has served termination notices to almost 700 class-four employees from the education departments in the tribal areas where schools were blown up by militants during the past year.”iv The area does not have an adequate number of educational institutions and most of them are bereft of required facilities. According to the latest data available with the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar, “there are 5,620 educational institutions, including 196 mosque schools, 3,640 primary schools, 455 middle schools, 275 high schools, 13 higher-secondary institutions, 37 degree colleges, four elementary colleges, 956 community schools and 44 industrial homes. There are 3,271 educational centres for boys and 2,349 for girls. The number of sanctioned teachers is 22,045, 14,974 males and 7,071 females.”v However, most of these schools exist “on paper,” not in the physical sense. The number of students enrolled in these institutions is 607,004, with 405,602 boys and 201,402 girls. A handful of the “ghost schools” are buildings where tribal maliks have their personal hujras or use them for business centres. There are even some buildings where they keep their animals.vi
With no accountability system in place, a large number of school teachers turn up only to collect their salaries. Needless to say, there is no proper way of assessing, evaluating and monitoring the performance of the teaching staff. There is intense political interference in the matter of transfers, postings and appointments of staff. Meanwhile, scholarships are disbursed through the political agent, and he is at liberty to awards those scholarships to anyone he favours. The reason for teachers’ absenteeism has largely been non-payment of their salaries. The education department in the FATA Secretariat has utterly failed to pay out salaries to teachers for months now, which forces them to quit their jobs and look for some other means of livelihood.
The civilian government has so far neglected the tribal areas by depriving the youth of FATA of quality education and modern technical training. The army has taken up this task by building educational institutions and training the war-weary people of the area aimed at hindering them from joining terrorist and militant outfits. Lack of proper education has brought about economic issues, because a large number of people lack technical education so as to be employed somewhere in the country.
Political issues
Apart from educational problems, FATA is also faced with some formidable political issues. Within the meaning of Articles 51, 59 and 247 of the 1973 Constitution, it is represented in the National Assembly with 12 seats and in the Senate with 8 members, but remains under the direct executive authority of the President. It is administered by the Governor of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as an agent to the President of Pakistan. The administrative head of each tribal agency is the Political Agent who represents the President of Pakistan and the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is highly astonishing that laws framed by the National Assembly do not apply there, unless ordered by the President, who is also empowered to issue regulations for the peace and good government of the tribal areas.
As regards each Frontier Region, that is administered by a Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the respective settled district, who exercises the same powers in the FR as the Political Agent does in a tribal agency. The politics is primarily monopolised by men because cultural, traditional and social practices have kept FATA’s women in a highly vulnerable position and they are mostly excluded from decision-making. If the women of the area are further kept away from politics and administrative affairs, the area would miserably fail to develop.
It is a pity that hand-picked and incompetent political agents have been appointed to govern terrorism – stricken FATA without proper checks and balances. As a result, maliks and sardars with considerable wealth and lands bear sway on the unworkable administration, which is bound to result in widespread corruption, mismanagement, nepotism and misappropriation of large sums of money. If required political reforms are delayed by the incumbent political set-up, the costly operation will turn out to be a fiasco, and terrorists will surely flock to FATA and establish hotbeds and hideouts.
Economic backwardness
The economy of FATA is relatively underdeveloped compared to other provinces and administrative territories of Pakistan. It is the most impoverished and least developed area in the country. Persistent economic deprivation has pushed the tribal people towards terrorist and militant outfits such as TTP or foreign spy agencies such as the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to acquire money to make the ends meet for their families. “Despite being home to 2.4% of Pakistan’s population, it makes up only 1.5% of country’s economy with per capita income of only $663 in 2010.”vii According to a study, 60% of its population living below the poverty line and with unemployment rate ranging between 60-80%. As par available statistics, only 7% of the total land of FATA is cultivable, while the remaining 93% of the land is dry, mountainous and unproductive.viii Of this cultivable land only 3% is irrigated whereas the remaining is totally dependent on rain. Most of the land belongs to the local khans and malaks and more than 50% of the people have no agricultural land.
One major issue besetting FATA’s economy is huge the brain drain. “Those who are better off or are able to travel migrate to larger cities and urban centres outside the tribal areas within Pakistan and across the Middle East. A significant number of these are highly qualified professionals and in many cases have settled permanently along with their families outside FATA, contributing to a brain drain effect and shortage of skilled workers in FATA.”ix
There are abundant natural resources in FATA such as marble, copper, limestone and coal which can create a potentially thriving mining industry, although the current socio-economic situation has partly hindered their profitable exploitation. Trade with neighboring Afghanistan plays an active role in FATA’s economy, and items imported and exported to the country via trucks pass through supply routes in FATA. The area has also been influenced to a great extent by the active Afghan opium trade. This has made FATA a transitional point for smuggling and trafficking of goods, as well as black markets. There are sizeable indigenous weapons and firearms manufacturing industries present,x such weapons are used by terrorists and militants to mount attacks on government installations and on the army.
Foreign aid to the region often remains a difficult challenge, according to Craig Cohen, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. Because of bad law and order, local nongovernmental organizations are required to distribute aid, but there is a lack of trust amongst NGOs and other powers that hamper distribution. Pakistani NGOs are often targets of violent attacks by Islamist militants in FATA. Owing to the extensive hostility to any hint of foreign influence, the American branch of Save the Children was distributing funding anonymously in the region as of July 2007.xi There have been calls to implement greater measures for integrating FATA into the mainstream economy. In this regard, there are several economic, industrial and social development reconstruction ventures that have been undertaken by the government recently in order to aid FATA’s economy, including the launch of organisations such as the FATA Development Authority. Such measures are welcoming.
The specter of corruption is a major challenge to the faltering economy of FATA. The political administration enjoys unchecked financial powers which result in swelling corruption of the developmental funds afforded by foreign donors, hence stunting projected developments. Ayaz Wazir, the former ambassador, writes in the News that, “had the money been utilised honestly and sensibly, Fata would have become the most developed and modern area in all of Pakistan.”xii
Moreover, millions of Afghan refugees who migrated to FATA from 1979 have continued to create economic problems for the area. Despite large-scale repatriation, they are still a mounting burden on the economy of FATA in particular and Pakistan in general. Equally important, due to lack of economic opportunities and absence of economic regulation, the tribal areas have become a hub of black marketing and a pervasive arms and drugs trade. Menacingly, it has exacerbated poverty, which in turn has been fuelling militancy and terrorism in the tribal region.
Legal Impediments
FATA has also been deprived of having the same legal system as the rest of Pakistan enjoys. The jurisdictions of the Supreme Court and Peshawar High Court (PHC) do not extend to FATA. All civil and criminal cases are decided under the FCR by a jirga (council of elders). Due to the unchecked discretionary power placed into the hands of the Jirga and consequent gross human rights violations occur which is why this law has come to be known as the “black law”. It is unfortunate that British colonial law has been in force since 1948. No doubt, this outmoded law has been frequently employed under the sway of big landlords to take harsh revenge and settle political vendettas, and presumably the ordinary people have hardly acquired true justice. Therefore, a large number of disgruntled people unwittingly opt for terrorist organizations to settle their scores.
About the afore-mentioned issues of FATA, the PML-N led federal government is indifferent and moving at a snail’s pace to introduce far-reaching educational, political, economic and legal reforms in the post-operation period, which could well steer the country towards more problems such as terrorism and militancy. To inhibit re-emergence of defeated terrorists in FATA, it is the need of the hour to fill the gap left by the fighting through bringing in comprehensive reforms in the war-torn area.
A way forward
It is important to resolve these long lasting issues of this part of the country in order to close the door for terrorism and militancy. It is crucial to educate qualitatively the people of FATA so that they come to realise their worth, fundamental political, socio-economic and legal rights, and also the nefarious designs of terrorists and militants. Proper mass education is the only weapon they can easily employ to change their lot. FATA badly needs modern and state-of-the-art educational institutions if the state wishes to carry the day and keeps terrorism at bay in perpetuity. So it is imperative to build enough educational institutions meant to impart modern education about democracy and liberalism, and also disseminate an effective counter narrative against existing Taliban ideology. Furthermore, it is equally important to fully equip and train the energetic youth of the area with sophisticated technical education and get them engaged in productive work so as to better their financial position.
A well-planned teachers’ training programme should be devised, requiring the use of multimedia tools by students. Science teachers should be able to develop a modern approach and scientific outlook among student. Besides, computer literacy programmes should be made an essential part of education. To make schools and other educational institutions attractive for students, extra-curricular activities like quizzes, debate, singing competitions, sports and scouting should be actively promoted. This will automatically increase enrolment and decrease the dropout rate. The construction of new schools and vocational training centres, besides rehabilitation of the existing “ghost schools,” non-functional and damaged schools should be immediately provided basic facilities like drinking water, electricity and toilets, proper seating arrangements. Schoolhouses lacking boundary walls should have them, especially schools for girl students. The lack of boundary walls is the main reason why parents are reluctant to send their daughters to school. Similarly, girls’ education would become more popular if safe and dependable transportation, and hostels for higher-education institutions, were made available to female students and teachers. At the same time, a system should be put in place for the evaluation, monitoring and assessment of the performance of the teaching staff.
To minimise political interference, scholarships should be awarded to the best-performing students, with the political agent being bypassed. This could be done through an autonomous body with a good reputation in the domain of education. Scholarships should be made conditional upon the students awarded scholarships being under a binding pledge to their respective areas in FATA for a specified period after the completion of their courses. Since scholarships will require private donations, the donors’ involvement will sharply reduce chances of favoritism and corruption in the process. Apart from all these positives, the return of scholarship recipients to their areas from the cities, where they will be exposed to a modern and heterogeneous environment, will mean the infusion of fresh ideas in their more backward communities.xiii
It is essential to empower the people politically by abolishing non-democratic traditions. Secondly, it is important to establish a sort of representative assembly with elected members. Thirdly, FATA should be provided with local bodies composed of their own elected representatives so that power is transferred from the few elites to the masses at grass root level that are currently playing only the second fiddle. For sustainable good governance, transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation and responsiveness ought to be ensured.
Besides, economic measures aimed at improving people’s lives are also needed. The Chief Justice PHC, Dost Muhammad Khan, said that, “the government could overcome terrorism by providing permanent jobs to the tribal youth, as they are falling into the wrong hands due to unemployment.” The government should take serious steps to regularize, document and institutionalize FATA’s economy root and branch. The war-torn tribal areas should be connected by rail and road to the rest of the country via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Since the area contains commercially viable reserves of marble, copper, limestone, fine quality coal, manganese, gypsum, chromites, limestone, iron ore and coal, and also some reservoirs of oil and gas in Waziristan and Khyber agencies, the process of industrialization through a policy of public/private partnership would help tap, exploit and capitalise on these resources while providing immense employment opportunities and economic benefits. As a result, it could assist tremendously in bringing the youth of the tribal areas on par with those of developed cities in the rest of the country thus diverting them from the primrose path. Equally important, as FATA is a major centre for opium trafficking and the smuggling of other contraband, stringent actions must be taken to hinder this big source of funding to the terrorists.
Last but not least, proper legal reforms are also required to supplant the antiquated and draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). Therefore, it is of paramount importance that this obstructive law is scraped as soon as possible and replaced by the common law of the country. In this regards it is important to take into consideration the recommendations of the Peshawar High Court to the Parliament in April 2014 about making suitable amendments in Article 247(7) of the Constitution so that the jurisdiction of the superior court is extended to FATA. In addition to this, adequate courts of all types should be erected and Judges of honesty, spirit and integrity must also be appointed on merit so that the people are administered with due justice.
Conclusion
John Seeley opines that: Democracy is a sort of government in which all and sundry have their due share. The people of FATA need this democratic share in terms of guaranteed educational, political, economic and legal rights. If these required reforms are not introduced in the said area, terrorism and militancy will insidiously continue to haunt the region.
End Notes
ihttps://pakistanhorizon.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/war-on-terror-and-post-operation-measures-in-fata/
iiAyaz Ahmed, Disinvesting in Youth, The News International, Karachi, November 08, 2015. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/72075-disinvesting-in-the-youth
iiiIbid
ivhttp://frc.com.pk/articles/education-fatas-crying-need/
vIbid
viIbid
viihttps://pakistanhorizon.wordpress.com/2015/07/09/war-on-terror-and-post-operation-measures-in-fata/
viiiIbid
ixhttps://fata.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=90
xIbid
xihttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/asia/16pakistan.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
xiihttp://www.thenews.com.pk/print/22327-for-change-in-fata
xiiihttp://frc.com.pk/articles/education-fatas-crying-need/
