PESHAWAR: It was meant to be a plan akin to the Millennium Development Goals for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas because the United Nations MDGs announced in 2000 don’t really apply to Fata with its ambiguous status.

It came six years late – in 2006 – and promised ambitious sustainable development objectives for this underdeveloped region by 2015, again inspired by MDGs, with the same objectives and deadline.

But come 2015 and much like the MDGs in mainland Pakistan, the Civil Secretariat Fata’s much-vaunted Sustainable Development Plan 2006-15 has become another exercise in chasing elusive welfare targets in an area that needs them the most.

When the Fata SDP was launched with much fanfare in 2006, there were no displacements from tribal area, education institutions were functional, health facilities were operational and most importantly people lived with roofs on their heads.

Civil secretariat sustainable uplift plan meant to chase elusive welfare targets

Now in 2015 – the cut-off date for the Fata SDP realisation – there are two million people displaced, 1342 schools dysfunctional (destroyed, damaged or closed) and more than 100,000 houses destroyed.

A large number of families have migrated permanently to other parts of the country due to insecurity. The number of damaged and non-functional education institutions have multiplied since security forces launched operation Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan Agency in June 2014.

Like education, the health sector is also in shambles as many health facilities have been either closed, destroyed or remain without staff.

The implementation cost of SDP, prepared by experts of foreign donors including USAID, DFID and senior officers of the government, was about Rs124 billion. Officials in the Fata Secretariat said that Rs99 billion had been spent on development activities so far.

Spending billions might have brought positive change in the life of tribal people, one would imagine. However, instead of improving services delivery system and bringing institutional reforms, the government focused on expansion of administrative machinery and construction of buildings.

The Civil Secretariat, Fata Development Authority and Fata Disaster Management Authority were established. Over dozen departments and directors have been setup under the umbrella of the Secretariat. The incumbent governor ordered last month to set up Fata Infrastructure and Work Authority to take over to manage transport, power generation and public sector services in the area.

A big chunk of the ADP is spent on the capacity building of civil secretariat and its line departments functioning in the termite-infested building of the defunct Fata Development Corporation. Civil Secretariat has become dumping ground for policies, strategies and plans like SDP. Policies are drafted and then put into cold storage. One of the examples is Fata Local Government 2012 that exists only on the civil secretariat’s website.

Come 2015 and the grand-sounding plan “to create a peaceful, equitable society” have been reduced to a pie in the sky where most of SDP goals are concerned.

While there have been some progress in certain areas, an overall comparison of inputs and outcomes present a grim picture.

Here’s how:

EDUCATION: Literacy rate in Fata was 17.42 per cent and only three women were literate, according to 1998 census report. Directorate of education Fata claims about 2 per cent raise in literacy rate. There were 3297 primary schools, 212 mosque schools, 809 community schools, 404 middle schools, 231 high, 10 higher secondary schools and 32 colleges in 2004-05. Enrollment in primary was 275,485 with 9081 teachers.

COMPARISON: The annual educational institutions census 2013-14 shows that there are 3027 primary schools, 124 mosque schools, 374 community schools, 445 middle schools, 291 high schools, 14 higher secondary schools and 37 degree college including 13 for girls. Enrollment in primary schools is 408,638. The number of teachers in primary teachers is 10244 against sanctioned posts 11,159. Estimated shortage of teachers in schools is about 2500.

One cadet college was functioning in Razmak, North Waziristan Agency and now its students had been shifted to Nowshera because of militancy. Its building has been turned into army barrack. A new cadet college was established in South Waziristan Agency. Establishment of university and medical colleges is still a far cry despite homework and allocation of funds in ADPs.

Establishment of satellite campuses of university of engineering and technology Peshawar were also incorporated in SDP that has not materialised.

Major achievement in education sector is a special scholarship initiative to provide education opportunities to tribal students in the country’s education institutions. Private schools and colleges have been set up.

HEALTH: Health delivery system portrays a dismal picture. Of total 436 health facilities 86 had been damaged in militancy which resulted in reduction of availability of beds.

SDP report said that available bed strength was 1762 for all Fata in 2006 which decreased to 1705 in 2013-14. About 577 medical specialists, medical officers, female medical officers and dental surgeons were serving in Fata in 2006 which has increased to 709 in 2013.

The government instead of strengthening the existing health facilities invested more in mobile health delivery system.

Rs60 million is allocated in ADP for running mobile hospitals.

Officials in health directorate said that 100 sanctioned posts of medical officers and 60 per cent posts of specialist doctors were lying vacant in different tribal agencies. Establishment of public health schools, Fata Institute of Medical Sciences, strengthening of health facilities and building new facilities were included in SDP. Currently, two A-category hospitals are under construction.

AGRICULTURE: Of the total 2.7 million hectares, hardly 200,000 hectares (around seven per cent) was cultivated in Fata in 2005 which increased to 227,000 hectares (8.35) per cent in 2013. Despite intervention of foreign donors, people of Fata are still relaying import of food items like wheat, rice and vegetables from KP and other parts of the country and food deficiency exists.

INDUSTRY: One major component of the SDP was establishment of two Economic Opportunity Zones. Lot of discussion took place between US and Pakistan to setup at least two in Fata, but nothing materialised.

The federal government own initiative to establish small industrial estate at Dara Adamkhel also hangs in balance. Several small industrial units in the region have been either damaged or shifted to other areas due to militancy and non availability of electricity.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING: FDA has started vocational training for tribal youths and around 7,000 youngsters had completed training in different fields. Similarly FDA has been running skill training centers for women in different tribal agencies. However, a lot of funds are spent on the capacity building of Secretariat staff itself.

TOURISM: One of the tasks of the FDA was to take initiative for opening tribal area for tourism. The authority awarded contract to a private consultant company to identify tourist attracted sites in Fata. An amount of Rs1.6 million was paid to the firm as consultancy fee but the plan was dropped.

Fata appears as a grand experiment in how not to administer a region so that its state and people remain, essentially where they were since Pakistan came into being. One of the complex issues of Fata is that the number of stakeholders has increased during the past one decade.

Initially political agent, governor and local Maliks were major stakeholders. Now, Army, political administration, Frontier Corps, state agencies, ministry of state and frontier regions, civil secretariat and Mullahs/Maliks are main shareholders. Core issues like governance, judicial reforms, transparency, audit, monitoring of development projects through independent monitors and financial corruption have not been addressed. Last year civil secretariat conducted more than 70 inquiries in different line departments last year, but it has yet to see light of the day.

Policies are drafted but not implemented. Every governor and his team come with his own vision and plan.

Lt-Gen (r) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah introduced agency council system to lay foundation of local government system in the area. After completion of first tenure the plan was wrapped up.

Lt-Gen Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai introduced SDP. Owais Ahmad Ghani tried to implement ‘Balochistan Model.’

Barrister Masood Kausar introduced reforms in Frontier Crimes Regulation which has yet to be implemented practically. The incumbent Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan has constituted Fata Reforms Commission (FRC) to frame strategic objectives for Fata for the next 25 years which means that tribal area will be governed as Fata - as it is - till 2040.

An official at the civil secretariat said after monitoring and evaluation of SDP, the secretariat would prepare another five years plan for Fata.

He said the government had made sufficient investment in different sectors and the ongoing SDP would continue.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

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