Along with wife, James Michael occupies the living quarters with one room in Teddi Bazaar of Jamrud tehsil in Khyber Agency.

The 72-year-old has been using the living quarters for 50 years.

Not only Michael but his grandfather too was born in Jamrud.

His grandfather is buried in a local graveyard, which is fast shrinking due to lack of space.

“Our forefathers had migrated to tribal areas along with then British rulers before settling here though within the confines of official installations,” the elderly Christian told Dawn without exactly knowing during which period of the British rule, his forefather had come to Fata.

“Ironically despite living in tribal areas for decades, we, the members of religious minorities, are not entitled to purchase land or build a house for ourselves nor are we given local domicile certificates by the political administration,” he insisted while basking in the sun on a cool winter day outside his living quarters, which is made of mud and bricks.

James used the same living quarters along with parents and four brothers and two sisters for a long time.

He worked at the Water and Power Development Authority offices in Jamrud as a Class-VI employee for 23 years, while his three sons serve in the communication and works department as Class VI employees. His youngest son is a sweeper in the office of Khasadar line officer, Jamrud.

“The political administration issues only a temporary resident certificate to all minorities. In absence of a permanent domicile certificate, minority members can’t apply for a white-collar job nor can they own a house or a piece of land here,” James regretted.

Wilson Wazir, 40, the first Fata Christian, who is nominated for the award of Sitara-i-Imtiaz by the federal government on account of his efforts as a social worker for promotion and development of minorities in the rugged region, also acknowledged that denial of domicile to minorities was the ‘greatest injustice’ to them by the government.

Holding a master’s degree in chemistry from University of Peshawar, Wilson served as a science teacher in Army Public School Landi Kotal for some time. He, however, quit the job and began serving as a social worker in order to win legal, constitutional and human rights for religious minorities of Fata and help resolve their disputes by local panchayat system.

The Khyber Agency political administration has only recently awarded Wilson a lungi, the status of a tribal elder, authorising him to attest computerised national identity cards and other documents of minorities.

The political administrations in other tribal agencies have awarded similar status to Sikhs and Christians.

He said like him, most of the young Christians, Sikhs and Hindus living in Fata aspired to acquire quality education and earn for themselves a decent job.

The later father of Wilson was a sweeper in a local government school, where his son received early education.

Wilson lamented minority students were denied admission to educational institutions of their choice as they could neither compete with others for it on open merit nor could they avail themselves of the quota reserved for tribal students due to denial of Fata domicile.

Awami National Party minority Senator Amarjeet Singh said unavailability of domicile certificate by the relevant political administrations to Fata minorities was a major hurdle to the resolution of most of their problems.

He said he had submitted a resolution to the Senate to seek domicile certificates of Fata for members of religious minorities living in the region along with provision of better jobs in accordance with the quota allocated for minority members in other parts of the country.

The senator said members of minorities, especially Christians, were only employed as sweepers in Fata no matter how educated they were and that they were denied full share in five percent quota reserved for religious minorities in both the federal and provincial jobs.

He said the situation had forced a number of minority families to migrate from Fata as they faced accommodation problems due to shortage of space in their decades old living quarters and also in search of better job opportunities in other parts of the country.

Sardar Suran Singh, a minority MPA in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, told Dawn that it was the constitutional and legal right of the members of Fata minorities to get a local domicile like members of the minorities living in other parts of the country.

Wilson along with Arshad Masih, chairman of All Fata Christian Community, was instrumental in winning the right of voting for Fata minorities on adult franchise basis before the 2008 general elections.

The federal government had granted the right of voting to the people of Fata on adult franchise basis in 1997 but the right was denied to members of local religious minorities for eleven more years.

Wilson said the 1998 national census put the population of religious minorities in Fata at 25,000 only.

“The number of minorities was not less than 50,000 in all seven agencies and six Frontier Regions,” he insisted.

He demanded representation of religious minorities in the National Assembly and the Senate on reserved seats saying the move will help minorities effectively raise their voices.

Sahib Singh, a former minority representative in the Agency Council of Khyber Agency, however, argued that the number of minority members in Fata, especially Khyber Agency, Orakzai, Kurram and North and South Waziristan agencies, had considerably dropped due to the prevailing hostile situation in the region as many they had shifted to safer places outside Fata in the recent past.

Almost all Sikh families living in Bara and Tirah areas of Khyber Agency had left their houses when a Bara-based militant organisation, Lashkar-i-Islam, imposed jazya, a religious tax on them for provision of security in 2007.

The Taliban forcibly occupied the houses and shops of Sikhs in Orakzai Agency in 2010 resulting in mass migration of Sikhs from Orakzai Agency.

Militants in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency executed two Sikhs for spying but most of local minority leaders said they were never forced to change religion.

Members of minorities in other parts of Fata did not face such intimidation.

However Senator Amarjeet Singh firmly believed members of all minorities from Fata would return to their respective regions once peace was restored there.

“They (minorities) especially Sikhs have their houses, shops and agricultural lands in Tirah and Orakzai and once the situation improves in Fata, they will definitely go back to their homes,” he said.

James Michael of Jamrud insisted worship places of religious minorities in the area were safe and that local Muslims had never stopped them from observing religious rituals there.

With the church situated adjacent to his one-room house, he said most of the church expenses were borne by the local Christian community, while the local political administration also gave them generous financial assistance on occasions of their religious festivities.

Similar views were expressed by Amar Singh, who along with his family, shifted to Peshawar four years ago after his house was torched by the Taliban in Orakzai Agency.

He said though their houses and shops were looted and torched, all their places of worship, gurdwaras, were intact.

Amar Singh said Hindus dharamsalas in both Orakzai and Kurram agencies were also properly taken care of despite the fact that most Hindu and Sikh families had migrated to Peshawar and different cities of Punjab.

Wilson Wazir suggested that a minorities affairs department at the pattern of federal and provincial governments be established at the Fata Secretariat with the fixed annual budget from the federal government.

He said currently, the affairs of minorities were handed over to the social sector department at Fata Secretariat but the department had so far done anything worth mentioning for the betterment of minorities in Fata as they had no funds for the said purpose.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2014