Several perspectives on the FCR and FATA reform

Several perspectives on the FCR and FATA reform

It might be worthwhile to read two differing perspectives on the FCR and the FATA reform in order to come to an informed conclusion on a complicated issue that the government is likely to be dealing with in the near future. The various opinions on reforming governance in FATA can be divided into two broad groups – the first group favours very incremental reform in order to prevent unrest and further disruption of an already extremly fragile situation. Their opinion is in keeping with the policy of the Government of Pakistan since 1948 of agreeing to maintain the existing contract between the tribes of FATA and the British colonial government. The second group believes that the policies of the first group have failed and have contributed directly to the insurgency in FATA and the complete collapse of governance that we see today. In addition this group believes that the system of governance in FATA violates basic human rights and must be drastically reformed as soon as possible.

Below are several articles that represent each of the two perspectives.

Perspective I – incremental reform:

Reforms in FATA, by Mahmood Shah (retired brigadier and former secretary Fata and home-secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

THERE is a dire need for changes in the system of governance in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) but given a highly conservative society, they cannot be achieved in any radical manner. Read the full article

FATA should not be made a province, by Asad Munir (former head of the ISI and MI for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata):

The FCR as a whole is not a ‘black law’ as propagated by some elements which are clearly not familiar with these regulations. There are, however, some clauses which require amendments.[...]To bring Fata into the mainstream and change its status, a tribal consensus will be required. In all probability, they would never opt for a change in the present system. They are enjoying almost all the facilities of an average Pakistani village. Read the full article

Implications of repealing FCR – by Ismail Khan:

Even if any decision has to be taken, argue these analysts, the tribal people would have to be involved and consulted while introducing any law to govern their way of life. Opinion is divided over the FCR and system of administration in Fata, but most analysts agree that FCR should be retained with some amendments, particularly by making it appealable before a special bench of the High Court.Read the full article

Perspective 2 – more comprehensive reform

Make FATA a province, too – by Ayaz Wazir(former ambassador to Qatar):

The people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) have suffered for more than a century from the harsh and inhuman laws of the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR). The British Raj imposed it on the areas to divide the tribes. What the British did to protect their imperial interests in a colony can be understood but what we are doing to our own country defies comprehension. Read the full article

Province for FATA, let the people decide – by Farhat Taj (The writer is currently writing a book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban):

In Fata, there are three opinions in terms of its integration with the rest of the country. The first says that it should be made a separate province, the second that it should merge with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the third that it should stay as it is and that the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) should be purged of their more anti-people provisions. In my view, the eventual route for Fata should be determined by the people of the region themselves without any pressure from outside. We always argue that the Kashmir issue must be resolved according to the wishes of the people of the area. So it would be hypocritical for us to support the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination and deny the same to the people of Fata. Read the full article

International Crisis Group Report – Countering militancy in FATA (October 2009)

On 14 August 2009 President Asif Ali Zardari announced a reform package lifting restrictions on political party activity; curtailing the bureaucracy’s arbitrary powers of arrest and detention; excluding women and minors from collective responsibility under the law; establishing an appellate tribunal; and envisaging audits of funds received and disbursed by the auditor general. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government has described this reform package as the first step towards mainstreaming FATA, and much remains to be done. It must now swiftly implement these measures and, more importantly, take steps to fully incorporate the tribal areas into the federal constitutional framework, with provincial representation, legal protections under the Criminal Procedure Code and the national and provincial courts. Read the full report

Amnesty International Report – The human rights crisis in Northwest Pakistan (June 2010):

The Pakistani government must thoroughly reform or abandon the FCR, allow the areas’ residents to participate without discrimination in the country’s political life, and ensure that the human rights of all the areas’ residents are fully protected. Read the full report

FCR’s collective responsibility

IT is anachronistic that in Fata, millions of people are governed through a legal and administrative order that was evolved by British colonialists in the 19th century to strengthen and stabilise their hold over the region.

This primitive legal system, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), is anchored in the principle of collective responsibility and the prominence of the political agent who holds executive, judicial as well as law-enforcement powers. By retaining the FCR, Pakistan has chosen to treat the residents of Fata as separate from and unequal to the rest of the citizenry.

The FCR includes laws that not only reflect a primitive system of the administration of justice but also violate basic human rights. Particularly oppressive in this regard is Section 21 relating to collective responsibility and the blockading of an entire tribe.

Sub-section A of the clause authorises the “seizure, wherever they may be found, of all or any of the members of such tribe, and of all and any property belonging to them or any of them” for an offence committed by one or more members of a tribe.

The application of collective punishment thus disregards individual culpability and identifies the innocent with the guilty.

The genesis of the notion of collective responsibility as a means of governance in Fata can be traced to the early years of the British rule when Colonel Coke, who was in charge of the Afridis of the Kohat Pass, prescribed the procedure to be followed in
case of trouble: “to close the pass at once, seize all Afridis to be found in [the] Peshawar and Kohat districts, sell their cattle, stop all allowances and, when the matter is settled, cause all losses to be made good, not from the confiscated allowances but
from the allowances made from the time they may commence”.

Herbert Edwards, after becoming the commissioner of Peshawar in 1853, perfected the blockade technique by making it possible to bar an entire tribal group from entering the Peshawar market in case of any infractions. Thus, the notion of collective responsibility that had been envisioned by Col Coke became an important part of the FCR and remained the British rulers’ keystone until 1947.

The government of Pakistan inherited and maintained this, and while the clause relating to collective responsibility has recently been amended, the amendments do not appreciably change the essence of the earlier provision.

In drafting the FCR, it is said that reliance was placed on tribal customs and traditions such as the jirga and the idea of collective responsibility. Any such resemblance, though, is in name only as the FCR twists and distorts these institutions and empowers the executive authority to manipulate the jirga and its decisions and to award collective punishments, protect favourites and secure convictions.

The FCR has kept the tribes stuck in mediaeval times. The tribal areas have undergone great socio-economic changes since the enactment of the FCR but no corresponding changes in the legal and administrative order have been introduced. In the absence of state governance, the tribes have to rely on outdated concepts for maintaining some kind of societal order.

Though primitive and out of tune with the times, the tribal system tends to limit violence and restore balance. Each member of a tribal group knows that if he harms or kills someone, he creates a conflict with the victim’s co-liable group, which might result in blood revenge being extracted from any member of his group.

Disputes can sometimes carry on for years, even generations, as they are not dependent on individuals and collective responsibility involves ancestors and future generations as much as the currently alive.

While casualties are kept to the minimum, efforts are made to eliminate the most useful and important members of the opposing group. Tribal conflicts thus lead to a continuous brain drain by neutralising educated and dynamic individuals who would otherwise have acted as agents of change.

The wave of militancy currently being experienced in Fata has appreciably curtailed the application of the collective responsibility clause. However, it is still applied where the situation is relatively normal.

Last summer, the FCR section was invoked against two persons of a tribe near Peshawar and the ensuing process disrupted the normalcy of the area for months.

The accused had absconded and could not be traced, but the authorities insisted on their being produced. They were expelled from the tribe but this did not satisfy the authorities, as a result of which scores of innocent people belonging to the tribe were
arrested and jailed, many vehicles of the tribe were impounded and the tribesmen barred from visiting Peshawar. Ultimately, the tribe had to pay the liabilities of the accused persons.

In its 2010 report, Amnesty International described the FCR as “an antiquated and draconian system of limited government with little or no recognition of or respect for human rights, the rule of law, due process, political representation or democratic
institutions”.

The primitive tribal political and legal structure and its inherent system of collective responsibility has become a back-breaking burden for the millions of residents of Fata. The outdated structure is perpetuated through the prevalence of the equally outdated and draconian legal and administrative system of the FCR and its provisions of collective responsibility and punishments.

Fata has reached a critical point and its people have suffered for too long under an anachronistic colonial-era legal system.

The recent massive upheaval and consequent military operations and collapse of the governmental machinery have exposed
the ineffectiveness of prevailing system of governance. The government must establish its writ not just by force of arms but by offering a new social contract to the people of Fata.

The writer is a retired army officer from Fata.

National Assembly Poors Brutal budget session summoned on June 1

The National Assembly session, summoned under Article 54 of the Constitution, will begin at 5pm on June 1. PHOTO: APP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Dr Fehmida Mirza, the acting president of Pakistan, has called the National Assembly’s budget session on June 1, reported Express News on Wednesday. The Senate session will also be held the same day.

According to a circular released by the National Assembly Secretariat, the National Assembly session has been summoned under Article 54 of the Constitution and will begin at 5pm on June 1. The federal budget will be presented during the session.

It will be followed by the Senate session at 7pm, during which the budget will be laid.

According to sources, the Senate proceedings will continue for more than 15 days.

Money laundering cases?: PPP, PML-N Real Noora-Kushti

Money laundering cases?: PPP, PML-N standoff likely over ‘Sharif references’

By Our Correspondent

Published: May 23, 2012

PAC chairman says letters from Rehman Malik not opened yet.

ISLAMABAD: 

The interior minister seems to be on a crusade against the Sharifs – with his latest move being a possible moving of parliamentary watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with a reference pertaining to alleged money laundering cases.

While the contents of a letter written to PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan by Interior Minister Rehman Malik have still not been made public,  it is widely believed that they are related to the alleged money laundering cases. “I have not opened these letters. But I can confirm that I have received some letters from Rehman Malik but I don’t know their contents yet,” the PAC chairman told the media here on Tuesday.

The move by Malik may now set the stage for a potential showdown between the newly appointed PAC chairman and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members of the powerful panel of the National Assembly.Chan told The Express Tribune that once he had studied the contents of the ‘letters’, the fate of the references would be decided after consultation between members of the committee. “The decision to take up the issues pointed out by the interior minister would be taken up in accordance with the rules.”

Nisar’s precedents

The last chairman of the committee, PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, had set a precedent during his tenure as chairman by investigating matters which were not part of audit reports by the auditor general of Pakistan.

The general view before Nisar’s tenure was that, under the rules, the 23-member multi-party committee could only investigate matters which were pointed out in audit paragraphs of reports by the auditor general. However, similar to suo motu powers exercised by other institutions, Chaudhry Nisar also began taking up matters that were beyond routine.

The first such case initiated by Nisar involved the sale of Pakistan embassy buildings in Tokyo and Jakarta at throwaway prices. Another precedent set by the PML-N stalwart during his chairmanship was to seek details of lobbyists hired by the incumbent government in the US to boost Pakistan’s image.

Led by Chan, the committee includes some heavyweights from the PML-N including Khawaja Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Zahid Hamid, Pervez Malik and Abid Sher Ali.

Under the rules, the chairman has to consult committee members before taking up any issue.

PPP members in the committee include Qamar Zaman Kaira, Rukhsana Bangash, Noor Alam Khan, Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Rana Farooq Saeed Khan. Interestingly, Pervez Malik will be arguing on behalf of the PML-N leadership, while his sister Yasmeen Rehman will plead the case on the government’s behalf.

As it stands, the PPP and its allies have a clear-cut majority in the PAC with Asia Nasir of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) being the only opposition member in the panel other than the PML-N members.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2012.

No respect for rules: Ali Musa Gilani’s brawl with flight crew

No respect for rules: Ali Musa Gilani’s brawl with flight crew

Ali Musa Gilani raised a huge hue and cry about his guard not being able to sit with him. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD JAVAID/EXPRESS

KARACHI: A brawl took place between the PIA air crew members and Prime Minister’s son and MNA Ali Musa Gilani who was on board PIA flight PK305 from Lahore to Karachi.

Ali Musa insisted that his guard, who had an economy class ticket, would sit with him in the business class.

The matter could only be solved when the captain of the flight came to intervene and told Gilani that if he continued his demand that was against the rules, he (captain) would turn the flight back to Lahore.

The threat worked and Gilani decided to give up after which the flight continued and landed at Karachi airport.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2012.

The world’s tallest tower- 634-meter

A view of Tokyo Skytree.—Reuters Photo

TOKYO: The world’s tallest tower and Japan’s biggest new landmark, the Tokyo Skytree, opened to the public on Tuesday.

Nearly 8,000 visitors were expected to take high-speed elevators up to the observation decks of the 634-meter tower to mark its opening. Some reportedly waited in line more than a week to get the coveted tickets for a panoramic view, though Tuesday ended up being cloudy in Tokyo.

Skytree is recognized by Guinness World Records as the tallest tower, beating out the Canton Tower in China, which is 600 meters.

The world’s tallest structure is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which stands 828 meters. That’s in a different category because it’s a skyscraper, not a tower.

The Skytree will serve as a broadcast tower for television and radio, along with being a tourist attraction. It replaces the 333-meter-tall Tokyo Tower—a symbol of Japan’s capital since 1958—as the broadcast hub.