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Reforms package for Pakistan tribal areas

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan announced an Independence Day package of reforms for its tribal areas, including lifting a ban on political activities, that it said would integrate them with the rest of the country and marginalise militancy and extremism in the restive region.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who rules directly over the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas through the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province, announced the package of political, administrative and legal reforms on Thursday.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the reforms took effect immediately, as the Constitution empowered the President to make regulations for “the peace and good governance” of FATA.

Laws enacted by Parliament do not apply to the region.

Among the most important of the reforms is the announcement that political parties can now extend their activities to the tribal areas.

Until now, political activity was barred in FATA.

Though people in the tribal areas elected representatives to the National Assembly, candidates could not be aligned with any political party.

Even if they were informally associated with a political party, there could be no canvassing by the party itself.

Political parties, especially the ruling Pakistan People’s Party and the regional Awami National Party, have held this bar responsible for creating a political vacuum that was filled over time by Taliban militancy and extremism.

They have long demanded that the Political Parties Act should be amended to cover FATA.

Announcing the package, Mr. Zardari said the people of tribal areas had been governed by a hundred years old “obsolete system of administration of justice” that did not give room for their full potential.

The law had been “changed in accordance with the aspirations of the people and democratic principles while respecting local customs and traditions.”

In addition to removing the ban on political activities, the package also includes changes to the Frontier Crimes Regulations, a draconian colonial-era law that provided for arbitrary arrest and detention

without the right to bail and the arrest of an entire tribe, including women and children below 16 years, as collective punishment.

“Most of it has now changed with the amendments made in the FCR,” said Mr. Babar.

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