I would like the “knowledgeables” to teach rest of us ignorants how FATA is part of Pakistan, what laws are they supposed to follow, what is applicable and what is not. References to contracts would be appreciated, not just word of mouth.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Cap : the term Federally Administered Tribal areas would give you a clue 
There are many myths bandied about the region..it is often self serving and helps excuse great wrongs.
Historically; the Tribal areas joined Pakistan through a grand jirga which Quaid e Azam was directly involved in, while they did not ask him too, he made a commitment that as Pakistan was not there to attempt to rule the region by force of arms the then newly formed Pakistan Army would withdraw largely from front line positions (that were created as historically the bulk of the British Indian Army was deployed in trying subdue the Pakhtuns) and the lcoals would be free to act according to their own customs and traditions..but the region would continue to be governed indirectly as was done by the British through the political agent system ¶. The regions commitment to Pakistan can be judged from events soon after 1947, as the Pakistan Army was essentially weaponless because of Indian acts during partition, the fighting in the Pak-India 1947 war was dominated by tribal volunteers. They suffered heavy losses and had little logistical support but it remains the only war where Pakistan actually retained terrirtory.
Administration: The region is exempted from most tax and governed by all powerful political agents with small but efficient budgets who controlled the people through the tribal maliks..aided by militias which were Pak officered. The legal system was a continuation of the British legal system, known as the Frontier Crimes regulation.
FCR: The FCR is a very backward but effiicenet system which involved collective punishment..much like the Israeli system..with whole families being punished for one persons crime.
Generally speaking the PA’s wield total power, they know whats going on in the regions who enters and who leaves. They don’t allow threats to the system so political activities are banned except pro government ones or pro mullah ones. The locals could not appeal against a wrong judgement to the high courts or supreme court of pakistan against government decisions as the only person above the PA was the governor, Minister for SAFRON and the President.
Since the 1970’s human rights campaigners in the region and in NWFP have been asking the federal government with little effect to reform the existing system and merge the region at least administratively with NWFP. These reforms have been stalled largely becase of the huge sums of money made by military and civil service officers who are posted in the region. It also serves the government in power both military and civilian as conveneient to have MNA’s and senators who are independent so they can buy them off easily than those elected from a political party.
FATA: The Afghan Wars & 2001:
During the Russian invasion the ISI, KGB and CIA all fought over influencing the tribes to keep control fo the border to either stop infiltration by ISI-CIA backed Mujahidin or to encourage it..in some areas the Russians were quite successful..like Khyber agency in other areas Waziristan less so..the problem was for the pro infiltration groups was that the tribes were naturally hostile to outsiders. To resolve this, the ISI decided to promote Islam as a means of winning local sympathy because they did not want to promote secular or nationalist groups who might end up stirring the Paktunistan issue.
Fast forward to the modern day..in much the same way as Bush went after his mythical WMD’s in Iraq Musharraf was told Al Qaeda was in Waziristan..the supporters of the intervention ad the same arguents..we will liberate these backward people from terrorism ..give them development etc etc.. the end result was something close to 2,000 casulaties in fighting, some 20,000 people displaced and the collapse of the old FCR system. Now again similar to Iraq the operation created a vacuum which has been filled by the religious elements (again no mainstream political parties could fill that because the federal government doesn’t allow them in) . The religious groups with their brand of quick justice have won popularity which is now spreading to the other regions of FATA and into the settled areas.
As far as the Americans are concerned, they essentially angered the tribes because of the flip flops in policy towards the region and are now gradually being considered as no better than the Russians.
The Americans for their part looked poorly on the recent Waziristan deal (the NWFP governor at present is from the tribal areas..he is an ex lt general), and it is possible one reason tehy launched this strike in Bajaur was to scuttle any further deal..US military policy is quite short term..they want Al Qaeda and don’t really care what happens to Pakistan or the region afterwards.
Some links if you want to read up on it:
http://www.fata.gov.pk/ FATA web site
http://www.defencejournal.com/2001/apr/babar.htm Interview With Naseerullah Babar and he mentions the early days of promoting Gulbading Hekmatyar
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's undeclared war BBC article on fighting in Waziristan
newsline.com.pk An article on the FCR
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Good thread Cap and good post Zakk :k:
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Whats the significance of "Durand Line" and how does it relate with Grand Jirga joining Pakistan?
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Administration: The region is exempted from most tax and governed by all powerful political agents with small but efficient budgets who controlled the people through the tribal maliks..aided by militias which were Pak officered. The legal system was a continuation of the British legal system, known as the Frontier Crimes regulation.
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Does FCR bind the area with constitution of "administration"? I will try to skim thru the FATA website to see if they mention it.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Excellent work ZAKK Saib,
The operation in Waziristan was launched when the present Governor was Corps Commander and reportedly he was reluctant to operations in Tribals areas. Being a tribal himself he new the consequences but the present govt is overwhelmed by hawks and didnt pay any attention to a very mature advice. Resultantly he (Gen Aurakzai) was removed from his appointement. After tasting the bitter tribals, the govt realized their mistake and brought the general as a Governor to handle the situation accordingly.
Still many of our brothers, like those hawks, think that we must kill all of them, unaware of the consequences, and that is the problem with our nation, we dont learn lessons from our mistakes.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
The Durand line is only relevant in a broader context of Afghan-Pak relations and the Pakhtunistan issue as it was in the 1950’s. The line is poorly demarcated and quite arbitary as it was made by the British essentially according to what was strategically useful and not on any sense of human decency.
It cuts across certain villages and families virtually in half and for many tribals its largely irrelevant as a true border ..as it makes no geographic sense. The jirga that joined Pakistan had little to do with the order itsef as that was a non issue at that stage.
To answer your second question constittuionally (for what thats worth in Pakistan) , the tribal areas are simply an extension of Pakistan governed by different rules. That’s not unusual in the Pak context as much the same happens in Southern Punjab, the Northern areas AJK and chunks of Baluchistan and Sindh.
I often use this as an example of how little civilian politicians control in Pakistan..if one includes all the areas governed by these FCR similar rules in Pakistan (meaning areas where bureaucrats and military officers have largely total power) it probably accounts for almost half of Pakistans territory.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
^ so if current Pakistani administration wants to enforce its laws in the tribal areas, would it be against any formal "contract" with tribal agencies?
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
???
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
^ "by different rules" ????
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Thats the problem. Pakistan cannot enforce laws in the tribal areas. These tribal areas are self governed, they are practically autonomous. Pakistan has never been successful at administrating the tribal areas.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
yes, why is that a surprise? The rule of standardised law is not exactly something appreciated in Pakistan.
As far as breaking any contract is concerned, i am not sure if there was a written agreement..at the very least it was verbal. In the sense of law and particularly tribal law verbal agreement is a bond, you can only radically alter the agreement through the same process… a jirga of sorts to reform the area. Mind you all previous reform agreements were blocked by Islamabad and not FATA or the Northern areas.
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
As far as breaking any contract is concerned, i am not sure if there was a written agreement..at the very least it was verbal. In the sense of law and particularly tribal law verbal agreement is a bond, you can only radically alter the agreement through the same process... a jirga of sorts to reform the area. Mind you all previous reform agreements were blocked by Islamabad and not FATA or the Northern areas.
is other citizens movement restricted in FATA ?
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
Yes the federal government restricts both internal movement within FATA and entrance into the region..through a network of checkposts and informants…
Re: Understanding FATA, part of Pakistan
I am not surprise by "different rules", what I wanted to know was where the rules are documented.
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As far as breaking any contract is concerned, i am not sure if there was a written agreement..at the very least it was verbal. In the sense of law and particularly tribal law verbal agreement is a bond, you can only radically alter the agreement through the same process... a jirga of sorts to reform the area. Mind you all previous reform agreements were blocked by Islamabad and not FATA or the Northern areas.
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so all is verbal? there must be some documented proof of contrat.