MOST of the tribesmen of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are going through a period of difficulty unprecedented in their history.

Their lives, properties and, indeed, their very existence are threatened from both within and without. Yet they are unable to get their act together to face the danger.

Their region has been turned into a war zone at a time when the tribal institutional structure is characterised by chaos that has resulted from modern pressures and governmental apathy.

For too long, the tribal population remained stuck in time because of the primitive Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

Meanwhile, the winds of change have greatly weakened the age-old tribal structure. The tribesmen’s inability to respond to recent challenges shows that the tribal system has outlived its utility.

Fata’s socio-judicial and political system evolved over a long period of time, but the inaccessibility of the area meant that this evolution occurred in relative isolation. During a long period of socioeconomic and cultural stability, the system flourished without the need for change.

However, improvements in communication, transportation and the flow of information during the last 50 years or so have brought about tremendous changes in the socioeconomic conditions of tribal society.

These changes have improved the quality of life to some extent but caused considerable instability, inequality and unpredictability as well. In the absence of any effective mechanism in the tribal system that could help absorb the changes, the social cohesion, values and traditions of Fata’s tribal society have come under serious pressure.

The degree of impact varies from tribe to tribe depending on the proximity to communication centres and exposure to modern influences.

This region’s indifferent and callous rulers left the tribesmen to their own devices and at the mercy of political officers whose only interest was in maintaining law and order.

Instead of helping tribesmen adjust to change, the political agents allied themselves with tribal maliks whose sole interest lay in seeking favours for themselves and misusing development funds. A new class of privileged persons was born which dealt a deadly blow to the hitherto relatively egalitarian social and political tribal structure.

A growing number of educated young people started questioning the governing process and the tribal laws and traditions.

Most of them abhor the FCR and the laws under which a whole tribe can be punished for an offence committed by one person.

For an educated young man, it would be anathema to cast a vote for an aspiring member of the National Assembly who can do nothing for the tribes after being elected as he cannot make any law for Fata.

Simultaneously, corruption crept into the administration of justice where laws are manipulated to suit the rich and powerful.

The importance and role of basic tribal institutions such as the status of elders was considerably eroded.

Maliks are no longer trusted to lead the people, and the cohesion of the tribe, sub-tribe and family has weakened greatly. More and more people have started looking for answers in non-tribal models, and those who could afford it migrated to the cities.

The edifice of the social-political and legal tribal system was thus weakened to the extent that a severe jolt could destroy it completely. That jolt has come in the form of the Taliban.

In the past, too, the tribesmen had rallied behind religious leaders, but the issues involved were always temporal. The role and influence of the mosque and hujra were clearly defined, with the former representing religious obligations while the latter dealt with all matters of tribal society: social, cultural, judicial and political.

The tribesmen’s involvement in Afghanistan towards the end of the last century and the increasing ineffectiveness of tribal leadership mixed up religious and temporal matters and brought religious leaders to the forefront of tribal politics.

The Taliban promised to remove minor vices from society and were initially welcomed since the tribesmen could not do this themselves. Quietly, though, they increased their numbers, recruiting persons from all areas and communities and thus further reducing the tribes’ capacity to resist.

Persons who could rally the people against the Taliban were eliminated and whole sections of tribes who dared to offer opposition were terrorised through the tactic of killing scores of people while jirgas, funerals or sporting events were being held.

This sort of warfare was entirely new to the tribesmen, who were used to fighting a known enemy and keeping the damage to an acceptable limit for mutual coexistence. The Taliban changed all that.

Now, most tribesmen live like hostages in their own homes, threatened from many sides but too poor to escape. They suffer the brutalities of the extremists as well as the collateral damage of military action and drone strikes. Many went to Karachi — but many dead bodies came back too.

The huge Fata secretariat is unable to highlight the tribes’ sufferings or seek help for them. Meanwhile, the internally displaced of the region are carelessly handled. For their part, the tribesmen are reluctant to bring their families to live in the poorly managed and congested tented camps.

Everything they have known is crumbling before their eyes but the government is seen as trying to perpetuate the misery through mere minor amendments in the FCR laws.

These are people caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Piecemeal amendments to the FCR will not help as the internal dynamics of the tribes have changed over time.

The primitive socio-judicial and political system of Fata, which has no inherent capacity or mechanism to adjust itself to change, cannot cope with the ever-growing demands of modernity. The system has already given way and, as expected, it has failed to respond effectively when challenged.

The FCR laws and the general mindset regarding Fata need to change. The people of the region must be given fundamental political freedoms and basic human rights by bringing them at par with the rest of the country in a graduated manner.

The writer is a retired army officer from Fata.