Re: Why wouldn’t the government merge FATA with the NWFP
A nicely written article on what goes in the Tribal areas:
The inevitable FCR
AZIZ-UD-DIN AHMAD
Despite assurances given to the Senate to review the Frontier Crimes Regulation, and the appointment of a committee for the purpose, there is little hope of the government rescinding the draconian relic of the colonial era which is a stigma for any independent country. That it has remained operative for fifty-eight years after independence indicates there are strong vested interests that want to safeguard it. The FCR was enacted by the British rulers to crush the freedom spirit among tribesmen. Its harsh provisions hark back to a period in history when there was little concern for human rights of the subjugated nations. That it continues to be retained is a matter of shame.
The FCR gives wide discriminatory powers to the administration headed by the political agent. In the tribal areas jirgas selected by the executive authority act as courts of law. The appeal from the lower jirga is heard by the one above it constituted in a similar arbitrary manner. The punishment awarded can range from jail terms, fines, and the demolition of the accused person’s residence. The family members of an absconder, including women and children, can be arrested and put behind the bars. The law entitles the administration to deprive distant clansmen of a fugitive of government jobs, close the markets owned by them and stop their buses and trucks from operating as collective punishment.
**In a case reported by the Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC) last year, 2 years old Zarmina, 7 years old Iran Khan and 8 years old Tahir Khan were convicted under the FCR for 3 years along with their mother Hukam Jana because the children’s father and uncle who were wanted by the police had absconded. A newspaper report tells of 70 children being kept in NWFP jails under the FCR, 15 of them below 10 years of age. Speaking at a SPARC seminar in Peshawar on Tuesday Governor NWFP conceded there were 35 child prisoners currently in confinement. **
Among the worst ever recourse to the FCR was in 2004 when security forces fought militants in South Waziristan. This was the time when the Pakistan army had undertaken an operation to coordinate with a similar one on the other side of the border by the US led forces in what was described as hammer and anvil action. Tribesmen were ordered to hand over foreign militants and their local collaborators and as they failed to do so the operation continued for months. **Actions taken included raising of the houses of the fugitives, arrests of scores of their relatives and the dismissal of those in government service.
A daily fine of Rs 50,000 was levied for one week on two Waziri sub-tribes for failure to deliver the wanted men. Actions were taken to paralyse the economic life of the entire Ahmad Zai Wazir tribe. Markets and petrol pumps belonging to its members were forcibly closed down and trucks and passenger buses owned by them stopped from plying. Hospitals in Wana were shut down, denying treatment to patients. Entry of food items like wheat and flour was banned in the area. So was the exit of vegetables and fruits to markets outside the agency. **
It was at the height of the operation when Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS radio: “I am pleased President Musharraf has responded to our overtures and is conducting new military operations in that region. And he understands that the kind of rogue presence is not in his interest and is dangerous to Pakistan just as it is dangerous to Afghanistan …So what we are doing is cooperating with the Pakistanis making it clear to the Pakistanis that we want them to do everything they can to bring that area under control.” Ironically it was during the operation that Colin Powell, the representative of a government that is never tired of condemning comparatively minor human rights violations in countries it doesn’t like, visited Islamabad to declare that the US had decided to reward Pakistan with the status a major non-NATO ally.
There is a strong vested interest that stands in the way of rescinding the FCR. ** The special status given to the tribal areas puts the region directly under the President. This has allowed the powers that be to manipulate through him tribal legislators in the Senate and the National Assembly to put pressure on elected governments. Tribal legislators have traditionally played an important role in intrigues centred at the presidency.
Bureaucracy, represented by the political administration wants the system to continue as it provides it ample opportunity to misappropriate public funds at its disposal. ** What is more the system covers up the inefficiency on the part of the government officials entrusted to maintain law and order in the Agencies. Instead of creating an efficient system of detection and control of crime, they find it easier to resort to shock and awe methods. The outmoded and increasingly unpopular tribal elite banks upon the system for the continuation of its privileges. The jirga system allows them to collect moajib, or stipends, while it empowers them to punish their rivals and reward supporters. ** The army is interested in keeping the system intact as it gives it a free hand to deal with the tribesmen while keeping the press and the human rights activists outside the area as under the system none can enter the Agencies without permission from the political administration. **
The justification given to continue the inhuman law since the British days is that the Pushtuns are fanatics and only understand the language of force. One can understand a colonial power categorising the freedom fighters as fierce and lawless but it is highly insulting to demonise a section of population in an independent country.
Representing this vested interest Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman told the SPARC conference on Monday that despite several innocent children and women rotting in NWFP jails, it would be impossible to govern the FATA without the FCR. According to him it would not be possible to repeal the black law. What could be done at the most was to amend a couple of clauses to give FCR a “human face.”
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