Re: Why wouldn’t the government merge FATA with the NWFP
British policy vis-a’-vis Pashtun Land underwent three changes during 19th Century.
Initially, when they extended their control to the North-West, two opinions emerged among the British startegist regarding the north-western frontier of the then British India. The first was, Indus should be the line of defense against any invasion from the north because they thought operation and control beyond that point will be too risky and expensive.
Another group of strategists propounded the Forward Policy according to which British should assert effective control over in order to pre-empt any southward incursion by Tzarist Russia, another colonial power of that era. The propunders of forward policy won and British sent armies deeper into Pashtun areas to bring them under control or to install their puppets over them. But when they suffered heavy losses, they adopted another policy i.e. Closed Border Policy according to which they had to leave Pashtun Land especially Afghanistan as that but had to be on gaurd against any Russian southward activism. But after second Afghan War, they suspected that Russians are increasing their influence in the south so they invaded Afghanistan again. That again proved dangerous.
In the end, they devised Three Fold Frontier Policy according to which British India had to have three lines of defense in the north-west; the first line was to be Settled Areas of Pakhtunkhwa where they had to excercise direct rule; the second line were to be tribal areas/FATA which they had to manage through political institutions (political agents), and the third was to be Afghanistan, which had to have internal autonomy but had to get approval of British in foreign relations. In 1919, the Third Afghan War, Afghanistan won autonomy in external affairs also.
So these divisions served British interests. But the point is, can this colonial arrangement be sustained any more in this modern age of today? Can the todays political environment allow this.
To my Punjabi friends, don’t be amibitious because Punjab has no capacity to be an imperialist power. Its bureaucarcy was pampered by British and later sustained by the Cold War politics, but the 21st Century has entirely differet imperatives as for as conflict between great powers. The World is utterly against WMDs, Terrorism, and nuclear prolifiration and all powers know who is in the control of things in Pakistan and a militarized Pakistan is serving the interests of which ethnicity. The coming 25 years will see a downfall of Punjab’s power, especially military.