With the exception of the Orakzai agency, the remaining six tribal agencies of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province are located along the Durand line and have a direct impact on developments in Afghanistan. Since this British devised system, with very insignificant changes, is still operational, there need arises to conduct an extensive analysis and assessment to judge its effectiveness, validity and relevance in a changing environment. The Afghan crisis has deeply affected these agencies, including through a massive influx of Afghan refugees to Pakistan, Islamabad’s role as the frontline state for the Afghan Mujahideen Resistance against the Soviet occupation, and the prolonged stay of the refugees in the country. In the FATA more than anywhere else, these factors have created a deep impact that needs thorough academic investigation, said Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan, Director of the University of Peshawar’s Area Study centre, said his inaugural address to a seminar on “The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan” which was organized by the Area Study Centre (Russia, China and Central Asia) of the University of Peshawar in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation on December 7-8, 2004.

Due to the developments in the region and the importance attached to the tribal belt, a large number of intellectuals, academics, analysts and diplomats from several countries attended the seminar. These included the Director General of ISPR Maj. Gen. Shoukat Sultan, former Parliament member and central leader of the National Awami Party of Pakistan Latif Afridi, defense analyst Brig. (Retd) A.R. Siddiqi, Secretary to the Governor on FATA, Sahibzada Saeed and tribal representatives and elders Malik Qadir Khan and Malik Gulabat Khan, who all spoke on the occasion.

Vice-chancellor of Peshawar University, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Mumtaz Gul observed that the governance problem was the root cause of all ills in the tribal areas and suggested that a package of good governance coupled with tribal traditions could solve the problems in the Tribal Area. Dr Andreas Rieck, representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Pakistan speaking on the occasion highlighted the importance of the Tribal Areas. He said the foundation was actively engaged in promotion and getting knowledge on issues related to Pakistan.

The Political Agent of the Khyber Agency, Arbab Arif spoke on the status and effectiveness of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and explained to the participants how effective the system was, which he said was being implemented only with the consent of tribal people. He said that the system of Jirgas holds the key to resolve the issues. The political agent in any of the agencies acts as presiding officer of the Jirga. The FCR is a procedural law based on the traditions or “Riwaj” of the tribesmen. He said all the disputes and matters were decided by the council of elders and the delivery of justice, he said, was comparatively quick and effective.

Brig. (Retd) A.R. Siddiqi, a well-known defense analyst and former Head of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said in his speech on “A politico-military appraisal of the FATA” that the fact remains that Pakistan’s democracy is yet to be out of the woods and enter the wide space of untrammeled political choice and freedom. He observed that the recent Wana operation, the longest conducted after the Baluchistan insurgency, militarily lacked political clarity.

As Major General Shoukat Sultan admitted, Tribal Areas were neglected in the past. However, at present various developmental schemes are progressing there. They aim to improve living standards in the area. Commenting on the present situation of South Wazirsitan, he said that they were negotiating to resolve the problem there. Gen. Sultan argued that the policy in the 1980s to support Jihadi elements was part of the overall national policy, but maintained that the times had changed and that national interests defined Pakistan’s new outlook towards Afghanistan. “Now it is our national policy to discourage extremists and give voice to moderates,” he said, adding that Islamabad could not isolate itself from the world community. “This is the twenty-first century, and we cannot live in the situation faced by the country in the 1980s as the present day demands are entirely different”. He said the government adopted both direct and indirect strategies to flush out militants from South Waziristan. Gen. Sultan said that when tribal jirgas, lashkars (levies) and other tactics failed, only then did the government opt for military action.

Pakistan had supported and recognized the Taliban government mainly because it was a compulsion to secure a friendly government on the western border. He further elaborated that this did not mean that Pakistan supported their ideology. During the Taliban period, people from different parts of the world came to Afghanistan to promote their political agenda. He added that the tribesmen must accept that times had changed and with this, the reality on the ground had also changed. He said history shows that those nations perish which fail to adapt to changing circumstances. The purpose behind moving security forces into the tribal area was to secure the western borders, to check the movement of people moving into Pakistan, to ensure that coalition operations in Afghanistan did not spill over into Pakistani territory, to nab the terrorists and to assist in development works in the FATA.

Gen. Sultan also noted that the army was conducting an operation where the tribesmen harbored foreign elements, who were involved in the coercion of the local population with the help of local sympathizers. This involved obstruction of development work and defying government authority. Gen. Shoukat said the government tried to solve the issue through negotiation, jirgas and local lashkars prior to military action, but without success.

The Secretary to the Governor on FATA, Mr. Sahibzada Saeed, said that reforms and development packages have already been announced for FATA to change the old structure, improve and extend the devolution of power plan in the belt. Apart from this abrupt changes in the old judicial system at the tehsil (local) level administration would be made. A significant amount of funds will be spent in this context to improve health, education, communication, irrigation and industry. These steps are being taken to improve the living standards of tribal people. He said work on most of these development projects was in progress.

The central leader of the National Awami Party Pakistan Latif Afridi, commented on the FCR. He termed it a small law, having seven chapters over 61 sections. It applied to the whole of the NWFP, but was abolished when the constitution of 1956 come into force. He said the FCR was abrogated in most of Balochistan, except in certain areas, with the 1973 constitution, where too it ceased to be operative when the Shariat bench of Quetta High Court declared it un-Islamic. The people of FATA are the only people today where this discriminatory law is applicable and used with full force. He maintained that the FCR was followed with political agents and their deputies using it with an iron hand.

Speaking on the occasion, tribal Maliks (elders) Malik Qadir Khan and Malik Gulabat Khan recalled the sacrifices rendered by their forefathers in the creation of Pakistan and said that the tribal people are true Pakistanis. They asked the government to resolve the FATA crisis through dialogue and not to use force and devastate the situation further. If the government, they said, was interested to win tribesmen’s hearts, various developmental works should be launched to compete with the challenges ahead and remove the sense of deprivation and negligence that is prevalent in the tribal belt.

Gen. (Retd.) Nasirullah Baber, former Governor of NWFP and former Interior Minister, spoke on the tribal policy formulated by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972-77 and noted that historically, the tribal areas have been – and continue to be – both an enigma and a dilemma. Commenting on the current situation in FATA, he said that instead of giving a free hand to military forces to run the affairs of the Tribal areas, government functionaries need to take the traditional Jirgas into consideration.

Khalid Aziz, former Chief Secretary of the NWFP, delivered a paper on “ The Afghan Presidential Elections and its Impact on the Tribal Areas”. He observed that by permitting the Afghan refugees to participate in the presidential elections on 9th of October 2004, Pakistan took a huge international step, unparalleled in history.

Dr. Minhajul Hassan, of the University of Peshawar spoke on the impact of the Afghan crisis on FATA”. He said that one of the most glaring impacts of the Afghan crisis on the Tribal Areas was the increase in religious institutions, mostly run by Afghan leaders, who translated inflammatory literature into the Pashto Language. On the one hand, this contributed to the development of the Pashto language, while on the other hand it increased sectarianism and radicalism in the area. He observed that it was the Afghan war that introduced modern weapons in the area, saying that according to estimates, there are 1.9 million licensed firearms in the NWFP, while the unlicensed number is almost six times higher.

Col. (Retd.) Yaqub Mahsud presented a paper on Unrest in the Mahsud area and the negotiation process. He said that even after deploying three divisions of the army and the bulk of the Frontier Corps, the forces occupied only one third of the Mahsud area, those areas that had a better road network. The remaining two thirds, a highly mountainous area with no mentionable roads, remained unoccupied and provided safe havens to militants, said the ex-army officer, who also played a key role in bringing the militants to negotiations with the government.