Elections in the
Merged Tribal Districts Show Historical Change By Sajjad Shaukat JR192SS63
This is the
first time in the history of Pakistan that polling was held for elections of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly in the merged tribal districts of Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on July 20, this year and the counting of
votes is underway, with the unofficial results have
started pouring in.
Sixteen seats
have been contested in seven districts. Of the 285 candidates standing for the
elections, 202 are independent candidates. There are over 2.8 million
registered voters in the area, of which 1.13 million are women.
At 16, the PTI
has the most candidates who contested the elections from the ruling political
party. The JUI-F has 15 candidates, ANP has 14, PPP and JI both have 13 and the
PML-N has five candidates. Two women are also contested the election–the ANP’s
Naheed Afridi in PK-106 Khyber and JI’s Malasa Bibi in PK-108 Kurram.
A total of 1,897
polling stations have been set up across the merged districts. Of these, 482
have been reserved for men, 376 for women, and 1,049 are
combined. Pakistan Army, police and Frontier Constabulary personnel have
been deployed at polling stations across the seven districts. In this regard,
Spokesperson of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Nadeem Qasim said it may
take a day for the official results to be announced in ex-FATA elections. He
elaborated: “Polling has completed peacefully in the region. He appreciated the
role of all institutions, including Army for making a peaceful election
happen”.
According to
reports, voter turnout remained decent.
In fact, Pakistan
Army played a key role in restoring peace in the tribal regions. Hence, almost
all political parties nominated their candidates for the constituencies, as the
political activities have gained peace. Army made strenuous efforts to bring
the people of FATA in the mainstream of the country.
The government
has expressed resolve to spend billions of rupees in the next 10 years for the
development of FATA and the uplift of the local population in order to bring
them at par with the citizens of the other areas of the country and to remove
any sense of deprivation among them.
The tribal
regions remained troubled for over a decade ever since the US-led so-called war
on terror started. Pakistan’s Armed Forces and
especially Army have successfully broken the backbone of the foreign-backed
terrorists by the military operations Zarb-e-Azb and Radd-ul-Fasaad, while country’s
primary intelligence agency ISI has broken the network of these terrorist
groups by capturing several militants and thwarting a number of terror
attempts. Besides other provinces, peace has been restored in the KP.
In this respect,
thousands of terrorists were killed and huge quantity of explosives seized
during the operations of the security agencies.
So as to sustain
the hard-earned peace, Pakistan Army has also started the fencing of the Pakistan-Afghanistan
border. It would stop preventing illegal cross-border movement—including those
of terrorists who enter Pakistan from Afghanistan’s side and bring the drug-weapon
trade to a halt. The fencing of the Pak-Afghan border which is 2,611-kilometre
is expected to be completed by 2020 whereas 643 kilometres–462 kilometers in KP
and 181 kilometers in Balochistan have been covered so far. 843 border posts
are planned, out of which 233 have been completed, while the construction of
140 posts is underway.
It is due to the
huge sacrifices of Army and other law-enforcement agencies that improvement in
the security situation in the tribal areas became possible. The number of check
posts has also decreased by 31 percent in the past three years, resulting in
growing trade activities. Roads have been improved for connectivity with other
areas of the country, including FATA. In this regard, more than 800-kilometres of
roads have been constructed in the tribal districts as part of the
communication network, thus reducing the time to one-thirds.
However, with
the assistance of the security forces, Pakistan held the epoch-making elections
in the tribal districts and thus, gave a strong message to the international
community that peace has returned in the conflict zone.
It is notable
that external powers which have been supporting the Baloch Sub-Nationalists (BSNs) are also behind the Pashtun
Tahafuz Movement (PTM) as part of their
unfinished agenda against Pakistan. They leave no stone unturned in
misguiding the people of the Balochistan and particularly those of the KP by
creating one after another issue. In this respect, emergence of the PTM at a
crucial time, which is being paid by anti-Pakistan hostile elements and
countries, aims at accentuating the ethnic cleavages of the country, influence
Pashtun population in pursuance of strategic objectives of the foreign powers. PTM
which is actually a veritable political entity of the Afghanistan-based
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and wants to accomplish its nefarious designs
against Pakistan and its Army has opposed the amalgamation of FATA/PATA with KP province.
Nevertheless, it
is because of the Amry’s development-works in the tribal areas that the PTM has
failed in instigating the public against the federation of the country. While, amalgamation of
FATA/PATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province will result into multiple benefits for the people by
overcoming their multi-faceted problems. Therefore, the merger of
FATA/PATA with the KP was welcomed by the tribal people—the tribal people will
get representation in the KP Assembly and the National Assembly.
Earlier, the
proceedings for the merger have witnessed intense activities in shape of
meetings, debate etc. High-powered National Implementation Committee (NIC) on
FATA Reforms had earlier endorsed the merger of tribal regions with KP in a
meeting attended by the prime minister, chief of army staff, and others,
including chief minister of the KP and Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on
FATA Reforms Sartaj Aziz. Later, in May 2018, National Security Committee (NSC)
in its 23rd meeting endorsed the merger of FATA with KP, while
noting the regional and global security situation.
The credit for
making the merger a reality has been attributed to Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa,
who continued to push the political leadership for requisite activism on the
issue. The role of opposition parties also remained positive and
appreciable.
The merger of FATA/PATA with the KP province
has been a long awaited move, as there has been too much suffering in the
tribal areas. FATA was administered through
Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), and political agent acted as a justice
along with other executive tasks. FCR was a set of laws under which joint
territorial duties and penalties were imposed. Since America’s attack on
Afghanistan, FATA arose as a zone of trouble and proxy warfare. It also became
security risk for the region and put Pakistan into many hardships.
FCR which was
officially enacted in 1901 has its origins in laws which were enacted by the
British colonialists in the Pashtun-inhabited tribal areas in the Northwest of
British India. They were specifically devised to counter the opposition of the
Pashtuns to British rule. The main objective of the FCR was to protect the
interests of the British Empire. More than a century later, this law continued
to be applied to FATA residents by the Government of Pakistan. Not only did the FCR deprived the people of
FATA their fundamental rights, but also had taken away their basic legal rights
like ‘Appeal, Wakeel and Daleel’.
So, it is positive dimension for the tribal
people, as they have got rid of colonialism which continued after the partition
of the Sub-continent. The tribal Sardars (Lords) who continued British
practices were in favour of the division of FATA/PATA and KP. Now, this merger
is likely to upset sub-nationalist tendencies, being exploited by Pakistan’s
foreign enemies and some internal entities.
At present, FATA is most deprived and
least-developed area in Pakistan. With lowest per capita income in the country,
two third of its population simply lives below the poverty line. The literacy
rate is as low as only 17% among males and only 3% among females. And, almost
half population has no access to clean drinking water. No substantial endeavor
had been made to promote the socio-economic wellbeing of the people in FATA.
It is worth-mentioning that since the
occupation of Afghanistan by the US-led NATO forces, Pakistan has become center
of the intelligence agencies such as American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli
Mossad which are in collusion with Afghan National Directorate of Security
(NDS) to obtain the covert designs of the their countries and some Western
countries against Russia, China and Pakistan, including Iran.
Under the cover of fighting terrorism, these
secret agencies support the militants of Islamic State group (Also known as
ISIS, ISIL and Daesh) and Afghanistan-based TTP, including their linked outfits
which have been conducting terror-assaults in Afghanistan and Pakistan as part
of the double game of the US-led countries. And CIA and RAW which are in
collaboration with NDS are clandestinely assisting the Afghan National Unity
Government (NUG) to manipulate the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), as these
external entities are behind this movement.
Nonetheless, we can conclude that the nation,
especially the people of FATA are thankful to the Pakistan Army which played a
major role in integration of the tribal regions with the mainstream of the country.
Therefore, during the polling-day, people were raising slogans in favour of
Pakistan Army, while elections in the merged tribal districts show historical
change.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international
affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance
of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
