PESHAWAR: Four armed private guards accompany Malak Manan Malagori always after Khyber Agency political administration announced to disband the nine-year-old Malagori Peace Committee on the pretext that peace was restored in the region and tribal elders were required to revive and strengthen the traditional jirga system to reclaim their collective territorial responsibility, a cornerstone of the colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulation in practice in Fata, albeit with some amendments.

Malak Manan was the head of at least 500 volunteers of the Malagori Peace Committee, which had successfully thwarted a Bara-based outlawed organisation Lashkar-i-Islam umpteenth efforts to extend its unlawful writ to the Malagori territory, situated at the north of Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency, bordering Mohmand Agency.

At least three attempts were made on the life of Malak Manan since the disbandment of the peace body in March last year. Visibly discomforted with the disbanding of peace committee, he described the government’s decision as “cutting down the protective cord from an armature swimmer and leaving him in a deep sea at the mercy of God.”

He believes that tribal elders have been a prime and comparatively soft target for those, who challenge the writ of the government in tribal areas. Hundreds of tribal elders have been eliminated to weaken the government’s writ.

Tribal elder sceptical about restoration of peace without armed volunteers

The Fata Secretariat has of late decided to disband all tribal peace committees and strengthen the local jirga to assign to them the collective territorial responsibilities.

Officials believed that with military operations in most areas achieving its objectives and a majority of the internally displaced families relocated to their homes, it was time the writ of the political administration restored with the help of pro-government tribal elders by reconstituting and revitalising Qaumi Sareshtha (a body consisting of tribal elders helping the administration in conflict resolution and executing development projects).

“It is a misconception that tribal elders are capable of handling the collective responsibility of ensuring peace in their areas as they have lost their traditional hold over the tribal society and the government too had relied more on raising tribal lashkars and deploying security forces to counter the menace of terrorism,” Malak Manan observed and while referring to the importance of peace committees or tribal lashkars he posed a question to the government as to ‘how a house could be protected against thieves and robbers without armed guards’.

But Malak Waris Khan of Shalobar tribe of Bara, however, argued that gradual return to the old and traditional system of tribal areas could revive the lost influence of tribal elders alongside efficacy of the traditional jirga system.

“The jirga system always thrived and flourished with the active backing and patronage of political administration in the past and it could regain its authority provided the political administration put behind its active and perpetual support,” he remarked when quizzed about

Can jirga system replace peace committees in Fata?

the possibility of revival of the jirga system. Malak Waris Khan said that traditional jirga system would also help in empowering and strengthening tribal elders as the entire old structure of tribal system had been fractured due to increasing influence of militant organisations in tribal areas. It required full backing and assistance of the government for its complete overhaul, he added.

Imran Afridi, a local leader of Awami National Party, has completely different point of view. He said that there was little chance of revival of the traditional tribal system as tribal people by and large were now clamouring for a change in the existing administrative system.

“If we carefully observe the prevalent situation in Fata, we hear voices for change and that too for a complete repeal of the system, no matter whether these voices are for a separate province, merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province or an independent elected Fata council,” Mr Afridi referred to the recent tabling of a bill in National Assembly by some independent tribal parliamentarians, demanding a change in the administrative status of Fata.

He also believed that with amendments introduced in FCR by the previous government in August 2011, the political administration had already lost some of its ‘lethal’ powers it had been wielding for decades.

The reforms package announced for Fata by the then president Asif Ali Zardari also included extension of Political Parties Act of 2002, which further emboldened the local political leadership to challenge the authority of political administration and it was in the light of this role of political parties that Imran Afridi believed that the educated tribal youth along with members of the civil societies in tribal areas were not willing to succumb to the old tribal system.

Totally disagreeing with the notion of pro-administration elders regarding the role of peace committees and strengthening jirga system, Mr Afridi said that he never felt the need for raising tribal lashkars or harbouring a selected group of blue-eyed tribal elders at the expense of silencing the voices of politically aware educated tribal youth.

“Do we have such outdated mechanism for ensuring peace in any major city of the country, no,” he posed a question to himself and then answered it in negative. He argued that restoration of peace was the prime responsibility of the government and not the privileged tribal elders.

Explaining and defending the official policy of reviving the traditional tribal jirga system at the expense of abolishing government-sponsored peace committees, Fata Law and Order Secretary Shakeel Qadir said that tribal areas passed through a difficult phase of insurgency and militancy and required application of careful methods to rehabilitate the war-torn tribal areas.

“We haven’t reverted back to the jirga system rather it is an inbuilt conflict resolution mechanism existing in the tribal areas for decades while formation of peace bodies was a temporary arrangement to assist the government in confronting militant groups,” he insisted.

Mr Qadir, who is also looking after the planning and development department of Fata Secretariat, said that peace committees were represented by individuals while the elders represented the entire tribe and thus they collectively shouldered the responsibility of ensuring peace and resolving local conflicts.

“So now we have turned back to the Qaum (tribe) for assistance as tribes are still under the legal obligation to fulfil collective responsibility under the existing administrative system of FCR,” said Mr Qadir.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2016