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THE British put together a well-crafted system for dealing with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The centrepiece of this system is the allowance-holders. These include the maliks or elders (small allowance holders) and the khasadars (not to be confused with policemen).
Other important aspects include the payment of muajib (this can be understood as originally payment to the tribe for allowing the British to enter and stay in the tribal areas), areas accessible and unaccessible to the administration, collective responsibility, and civil and criminal justice.
The latter is done according to the local riwaj (traditions) dispensed through the Frontier Crimes Regulation by a jirga appointed by the political agent, the baramta (raid by Frontier Corps or khasadars authorised by the political agent) and the presence of Frontier Corps personnel recruited from Pakhtun tribes. At the centre of the system is the political agent.
The system worked for well over a century. But now, what lies ahead for Fata given that the institutions that bound it together have been broken as a consequence of the presence of the militants and the army?
The next big need in the context of Fata is a governance model. Here, I would like to raise some issues and point out the scope and urgency of the task. The government has primary responsibility in this matter.
Under Article 247 of the Constitution, the president and the governor have wide-ranging powers with respect to the federally and provincially administered tribal areas.
Fata, thus, currently amounts to being a gift for the president, with the governor as his agent. The wisdom of this status needs to be questioned. How much active interest have successive presidents taken in the affairs of the area? In fact, it was the blundering president Pervez Musharraf who pushed the army into Fata, which is what has brought us to this pass.
Fata is undergoing the most destructive period in its history but our presidents have had either no time or courage to visit the area regularly. The same goes for their governors.
Why did they think that remaining silent spectators, like the rest of us, was the best policy?
Fata’s ‘governorship’ has mostly been awarded by military presidents as a gift to fellow military officers. In the recent past, the gubernatorial post was effectively on the market for sale.
The only time tribal MNAs and senators are profitably employed is when a new government is being formed or when the sitting government is threatened. They can always be counted on for support. We know why. At the time of elections, Fata becomes a thriving bazaar for the sale of votes.
Was it a good thing to extend the Political Parties Act to Fata? The demand was made by political parties, not the tribal people, who are organised on the basis of tribes.
This is a complex and divisive structure, which will be made even more divisive by the noise and conflicting ideologies of political parties. How will tribal affiliations gel with political affiliations? Will the political culture replace the tribal culture? The latter is very resilient and deep-rooted.
The judiciary’s jurisdiction has not been extended to Fata for good reason. The courts demand evidence strictly according to the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and the Evidence Act.
It is not possible to meet those standards in the tribal areas where there is no police, no investigative agency and where most of the area is outside the legal jurisdiction of the political administration. This fact is not understood by most people.
At times of general uprising, which have taken place and which will continue to happen, the political administration makes arrests, imposes fines and jails the recalcitrant. If the propriety of such acts is left to be determined according to the criteria set by the Evidence Act and the CrPC, the tribal areas will never see quiet times.
The ‘systems theory’ concentrates on the idea of a political system as a mechanism by which popular demands and popular support for the state are combined to produce policy outputs that best ensure the long-term stability of the system.
Functionalism tries to find the necessary elements by studying the structures and operations of all social systems that are common to any stable social system. The functionalist theory is based on the analogy of biological systems and the way in which a biologist might study the role of a physiological aspect of life.
Political culture is the totality of ideas and attitudes towards authority, discipline, government responsibility and entitlements. A related concept is the civic culture. This is the general level of trust that people have in the authority that is supposed to be facilitating political activity on the part of ordinary citizens.
The ideal civic culture would be one in which political ideas and the values of the citizenry are attuned to political equality and participation, and where the government is seen as trustworthy and acting in the public’s interest.
The government and tribes of Fata have tolerated each other but the element of trust has always been absent.
Fata needs a new system based on a social contract with its people. This contract should be the result of extensive consultations with them and should have the elements necessary for that society to stabilise and grow politically.
The system cannot be left to be designed behind closed doors in ministries or in committees formed by the government.
The writer was formerly a federal secretary.
