The provinces’ refusal to take in those displaced by the military operation in North Waziristan brings into sharp relief the “second class” status of people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Are they displaced “pariahs to be confined to ghettoes,” ask observers, or are they citizens of Pakistan with equal rights?

“The people of Pakistan, no matter where they are, have constitutional rights that can’t be taken away by legislation or administrative fiat,” says Kamran Arif, co-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “One of the means to enforce constitutional rights is through the high courts. The paradox is that their jurisdiction doesn’t extend to Fata.”

Within Fata, people’s constitutional rights are violated due to the absence of courts. But once they step into settled areas, they come under the high courts’ ambit because the Constitution allows them freedom of movement,” explains Arif. “Any order that restricts their mobility can be challenged. Essentially, a Constitution is a composite of political compromises that a nation agrees to and so when it is violated, you violate the federation and strike at the heart of political consensus.”

Unequal citizens

This military operation is the 22nd such offensive since 2001. These have caused 25 waves of displacement, including that of the twice-displaced Mehsud tribe from South Waziristan Agency. Yet even when displacement due to conflict has become chronic, there is hardly any allocation for the displaced in our annual budgets and Pakistan seems increasingly reluctant to seek international assistance. Despite this, observers say, Pakistan receives billions of dollars under the Coalition Support Fund that could be used to provide relief to the displaced.

Between the time when air strikes came unannounced in North Waziristan and a declared ground offensive, there was time enough to plan a response to the displacement. And yet, when the crunch came, the response was marred by chaos and mismanagement even though disaster management institutions have had years of experience. To the displaced that were forced to leave their homes, this first appeared as indifference and then “a deliberate attempt to strip us of our dignity”. And then came the provinces’ reluctance to welcome the displaced, a sign that “they were not prepared to give the same status to people from Fata that a common Pakistani enjoys”.

“Known history shows that we have not migrated from our lands for more than 2,000 years and when we did, it was for the sake of the safety of Pakistan,” says an elder of the Dawar tribe from North Waziristan. “Now, the provinces are treating us as if we are not Pakistanis. We in Waziristan have never stopped people [from the settled areas] from coming to our region.”

The tribal leadership, say tribal elders, was eradicated, leaving people in Fata running around like “a herd without a shepherd”. “Leave alone Sindh and Punjab, even the deputy commissioner of Charsadda wants us to go to the camps,” says the Dawar tribe elder. “I am not upset that my family and children have been displaced, that I left behind my home, abandoned my land and cattle. What is important for me is my status in this country. Am I an equal citizen or not?”

This anguish is echoed in the remarks of another elder from the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan Agency, who says: “If the federation doesn’t recognise the citizen, then the citizen should not recognise the federation. Are we pariahs? Whatever we are today, it is because of the state of Pakistan and its jihadi apparatus.”

Living on the other side

The impression among the displaced, say political observers, is that they have been let down in the past — returning to shattered homes, not compensated for the losses sustained and being treated as terror suspects. The newly displaced North Waziristan population has been restricted to seven districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is not allowed to go to other provinces “like they need a visa, like they are second-rate citizens, a liability”.

At a time when half a million people have been displaced, the urban political elite is being criticised for having “other priorities”, the top leadership of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government for focusing on dharnas and the mainstream media for chasing “Qadri’s circus”, as if the displaced “live on the other side of Pakistan”.

“Right from the start, the people of Fata have been let down by the state,” says Jan Achakzai of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl. “The allocation for Fata is roughly $15 billion this year. Last year it was $17bn. This, when we are claiming huge amounts of international funding in the name of Fata. It is time the urban political elite in one half of Pakistan understood that it can’t have polio, conflict and militancy restricted to the other half.”

The cross-border welcome

Observers find it ironic that at a time when the provinces have turned away the displaced, they have found a place across the border in Afghanistan. Those who agree that in a catastrophe, people gravitate towards bonds based on race and identity, also say that the displaced that chose to go to Afghanistan may have done so because of its proximity. For tribesmen living in Dattakhel, the town on the Pak-Afghan border, and having business and families in Khost in Afghanistan, it is easy to go across. The Right of Easement, a provision under the Durand Line Agreement, also allows cross-border movement to divided tribes.

While the authorities in Pakistan are treating the displacement to Afghanistan as a normal seasonal movement of nomadic kochis, the UNHCR in Afghanistan and Afghan authorities are treating them as displaced people.

Observers, however, also see willingness towards regional cooperation in the welcome extended by Afghan authorities to the displaced: “What is different about this operation and others in Fata is that the regional players — not on board earlier — are quietly cooperating,” says Khadim Hussain, an academic and analyst. “This indicates regional cohesion and understanding — that Pakistan and Afghanistan are on the same page when it comes to fighting terrorism.”

According to Bushra Gohar of the Awami National Party, Pakistan should welcome the Afghan move to accommodate the displaced by coordinating assistance efforts with the Afghan authorities, and between the federal and provincial authorities in Pakistan. “For far too long we have looked at Fata as the ilaqa ghair and ghair is how we have treated the people in Fata. This has to change.”

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2014