Federally Administered Tribal Areas

For the American band also commonly abbreviated FATA, see From Autumn To Ashes.
For the Palestinian political party, see Fatah.
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Urdu: وفاقی قبائلی علاقہ جات
Flag of Pakistan
Flag
Location of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Coordinates:
Country Pakistan
Administrative unit Federal territory
Components 7 Agencies
6 Frontier Regions
Capital Peshawar
Government
 - Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Owais Ahmed Ghani
Area
 - Total 27,220 km2 (10,509.7 sq mi)
Population (1998)[1][2]
 - Total 3,176,331
 - Density 116.7/km2 (302.2/sq mi)
Time zone PST (UTC+5)
Website http://www.fata.gov.pk/

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are a group of small administrative units in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan in the south, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. They comprise seven tribal agencies and six smaller frontier regions, with considerable autonomy from the rest of Pakistan.

Contents

Administrative divisions

Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas consists of seven Tribal Areas and are called the agencies, which are from north to south:

Agencies are further divided into Assistant Political Agencies, subdivisions, and tehsils. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the FATA consists of the following divisions:[3]

Agency Assistant Political Agency Subdivision Tehsil
Khyber Agency Bara Bara None
Jamrud Jamrud Town Committee Jamrud

Jamrud Tehsil

Mullah Gori Tehsil
Landi Kotal Landi Kotal Town Committee, Landi Kotal

Landi Kotal Tehsil
Mohmand Agency Upper Mohmand Upper Mohmand Safi Tehsil

Upper Mohmand Tehsil

Talimzai Tehsil
Jamrud Jamrud Town Committee Jamrud

Jamrud Tehsil

Mullah Gori Tehsil
Yakka Ghund Lower Mohmand Pindyali Tehsil

Ambar Tehsil

Yakka Ghund Tehsil

Prang Ghar Tehsil
Bajaur Agency Khar Khar Khar Tehsil

Salarzai Tehsil

Uthman Khel Tehsil
Nawagai Nawagai Mamund Tehsil

Chamarkand Tehsil

Nawagai Tehsil

Barrang Tehsil
Orakzai Agency Upper Tehsil Upper Tehsil Upper Tehsil

Ismailzai Tehsil
Lower Tehsil Lower Tehsil Lower Tehsil

Central Tehsil
Kurram Agency Upper Kurram Upper Kurram Town Committee, Parachinar

Upper Kurram
Lower Kurram Lower Kurram Town Committee Sadda

Lower Kurram
Central Kurram None None
North Waziristan Agency Miram Shah Miram Shah Town Committee, Miram Shah

Miram Shah Tehsil

Ghulam Khan Tehsil

Datta Khel Tehsil
Mir Ali Mir Ali Mir Ali Tehsil

Spinwam Tehsil

Shewa Tehsil
Razmak Razmak Razmak Tehsil

Dossali Tehsil

Garyum Tehsil
South Waziristan Agency Sarwakai Sarwakai Sarwakai Tehsil

Tiarza Tehsil
Ladha Ladha Ladha Tehsil

Sararogha Tehsil

Makin Tehsil
Wana Wana Wana Tehsil

Bermal Tehsil

Toi Khullah Tehsil

Frontier Regions

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas also contain six small administrative units called Frontier Regions which are named after adjacent settled districts. The administration of the Frontier Regions is carried out by the district coordination officer of a neighbouring named district. The overall administration of the frontier regions is carried out by the FATA Secretariat, based in Peshawar and reporting to the Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The six regions are:

Main cities

Geography

The FATA are bordered by: Afghanistan to the west with the border marked by the Durand Line, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab to the east, and Balochistan to the south.

The seven Tribal Areas lie in a north-to-south strip that is adjacent to the west side of the six Frontier Regions , which also lie in a north-to-south strip. The areas within each of those two regions are geographically arranged in a sequence from north to south.

The geographical arrangement of the seven Tribal Areas in order from north to south is: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan, South Waziristan. The geographical arrangement of the six Frontier Regions in order from north to south is: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismael Khan.

Demographics

The total population of the FATA was estimated in 2000 to be about 3,341,070 people, or roughly 2% of Pakistan's population. Only 3.1% of the population resides in established townships.[4] It is thus the most rural administrative unit in Pakistan.

Federal type of governance of FATA and Frontier Regions

The region is only nominally controlled by the central and Federal government of Pakistan. The President of Pakistan has the authority only to implement the rules in FATA.

He appoints and nominates the Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who exercises the power of the president.

The Constitution of Pakistan Governs FATA through the same rules which were left by British in 1901 as Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR).

The Jurisdiction of Supreme Court and High Court of Pakistan does not extend to FATA and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), according to Article 247 and Article 248, of existing 1973 Constitution of Pakistan.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly has no power in FATA, and can only exercise its powers in PATA that are part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The assembly cannot implement the law directly as it can do in other parts of the province or Settled Areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

This has created a political vacuum in FATA, Frontier Regions and PATA, which serves the interests of terrorists very well, as there is absence of various government departments like police, judiciary, local governments, and civic amenities. There are no High Courts and Supreme Courts of Pakistan in Tribal Areas.

According to journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, it is in reality practically entirely controlled by the Pakistani Taliban.[5]

The mainly Pashtun tribes that inhabit the areas are fiercely independent and peaceful. Until friction following the fall of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, the tribes had friendly relations with Pakistan's central government.[6]

These Tribes are governed by the Collective Punishment or Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), introduced under the British Raj.

People of FATA are represented both in the National Assembly of Pakistan by 12 independent Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) who are elected. They are represented in the Senate of Pakistan by eight senators who are selected by these 12 MNAs, mostly by the amount of money they possess. FATA has no representation in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, although they live a few yards apart and are Pashtuns.

Tribal political candidates have some party affiliations but can only contest elections as independents, because the Political Parties Act of Pakistan has not been extended to the FATA. However, tribesmen were given right to vote in the 1997 general elections despite the absence of the Political Parties Act. Previously they were selected by Tribal Elders or Maliks for the last one hundred years.

The head of each tribal agency is the political agent who represents the President of Pakistan and the appointed Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The political agent wields extensive powers over the Tribesmen and can give Collective punishment through Frontier Crimes Regulations. These punishments are considered as not according to Human Rights Conventions.

According to a 2007 report by the New York Times, "the political agents are widely considered corrupt bureaucrats of Pakistan Civil Service."[7]

Each Tribal Agency, depending on its size, has about two to three Assistant Political Agents, about three to four Tehsildars and four to nine Naib (or deputy) Tehsildars with the requisite supporting staff.

While the difference only in the chain of command of each Frontier Region from FATA is that it is headed by the DC/DCO or Deputy Commissioner Officer, (for FR Peshawar, DC/DCO Peshawar and so on). Under his supervision there is one Assistant Political Agent and about one or two Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars and support staff.

Each Tribal Agency has roughly 2–3,000 Khasadars and levies force of irregulars and up to five to nine wings of Frontier Corps Border Rangers or Civilian Armed Forces, for maintenance of law and order in the Agency and borders security. The Frontier Corps Force is headed by army officers posted by the general headquarters of the Pakistan Army, and it reports to Interior Ministry of Pakistan and is under Federal Government.

According to a 2009 BBC survey, categorized as "grossly exaggerated" by the Pakistan Army which was fighting the militants there, the Taliban were present in all FATA agencies, and in full control of Waziristan, Orakzai and Bajaur.[8]

Women and voting

All of the FATA's adults were legally allowed to vote in the Majlis-e-Shoora of Pakistan under the "adult franchise" granted in 1996.[9] Stephen Tierney, in Accommodating National Identity, reported that women came out to do so in the thousands for the 1997 office, possibly motivated by competition for voter numbers among the tribes.[10] However, Ian Talbot in Pakistan, a Modern History states that elders and religious leaders attempted to prevent female participation by threatening punishment against tribesmen whose women registered, leading to under-registration in the female population.[11] In 2008, the Taliban ordered women in the FATA regions of Bajaur, Kurram and Mohmand not to vote under threat of "serious punishment," while Mangal Bagh, chief of the Lashkar-e-Islam, forbade women to vote in the Jamrud and Bara subdivisions of the Khyber Agency.[12]

History

Historical populations
Census Population Urban
1951 1,332,005 -
1961 1,847,195 1.33%
1972 2,491,230 0.53%
1981 2,198,547 -
1998 3,176,331 2.69%
See also: War in North-West Pakistan

The region was annexed in the 19th century during the British colonial period, and though the British never succeeded in completely calming unrest in the region,[13] it afforded them some protection from Afghanistan.[14] The British Raj attempted to control the population of the annexed tribal regions with the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which allowed considerable power to govern to local nobles so long as these nobles were willing to meet the needs of the British.[14][15][16] Due to the unchecked discretionary power placed into the hands of the jirga put into place by these nobles and to the human rights violations that ensued, the FCR has come to be known as the "black law."[17] The annexed areas continued under the same governance after the Partition of India, through the Dominion of Pakistan in 1946 and into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.[18]

According to the United States Institute of Peace, the character of the region underwent a shift beginning in the 1980s with the entry into the region of the Mujahideen and CIA Operation Cyclone, against the Soviet Union leading to fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Soviet Union.[9]

Voting and parliamentary representation

In 1996, the government of Pakistan finally granted the FATA the long requested "adult franchise", under which every adult would have the right to vote for their own representatives in the Majlis-e-Shoora.[9][10] However, the FATA were not allowed to organize political parties.[10] Islamist candidates were able to campaign through mosques and madrassahs, as a result of which mullahs were elected to represent the FATA in the National Assembly in 1997 and 2002.[9] This was a departure from prior tribal politics, where power was focused in the hands of secular authorities, Maliks.[9]

Rise of the Taliban

In 2001, the Taliban and al-Qaeda began entering into the region.[9] In 2003, Taliban and al-Qaeda forces sheltered in the FATA began crossing the border into Afghanistan , attacking military and police.[19] Shkin, Afghanistan is a key location for these frequent battles. This heavily fortified military base has housed mostly American special operations forces since 2002 and is located just six kilometers from the Pakistani border. It is considered the most dangerous location in Afghanistan.[20][21] With the encouragement of the United States, 80,000 Pakistani troops entered the FATA in March 2004 to search for al-Qaeda operatives. They were met with fierce resistance from the Taliban.[19] It was not the elders, but the Taliban who negotiated a Truce with the army, giving an indication of the extent to which the Taliban had taken control.[19] Eight more times between 2004 and 2006 troops entered the region, into South Waziristan and North Waziristan, and faced further Taliban resistance. Peace Accords entered into in 2004 and 2006 set terms whereby the tribesmen in the area would stop attacking Afghanistan and the Pakistanis would halt major military actions against the FATA, release all prisoners and permit tribesmen to carry small guns.[19]

Pakistan’s new Waziristan strategy

On June 4, 2007, the National Security Council of Pakistan met to decide the fate of Waziristan and take up a number of political and administrative decisions to control "Talibanization" of the area. The meeting was chaired by President Pervez Musharraf and it was attended by the Chief Ministers and Governors of all four provinces. They discussed the deteriorating law and order situation and the threat posed to state security. To crush the armed militancy in the Tribal regions and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government decided to intensify and reinforce law enforcement and military activity, take action against certain madrassahs, and jam illegal FM radio stations.[22]

Economy

District map of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA.

FATA is the most impoverished part of the nation, despite being home to 2.4% of Pakistan's population, it has only 1.5% of Pakistan's economy[23]. With a per capita income of only $663 in 2010[23] and only 34% of households managing to rise above the poverty level.[24]

Due to the FATA's tribal organization, the economy is chiefly pastoral, with some agriculture practiced in the region's few fertile valleys. Its total irrigated land is roughly 1,000 square kilometres. The country does not have a system of banks.[7] The region is a major center for opium trafficking, as well the smuggling of other contraband.[7]

Foreign aid to the region is a difficult proposition, according to Craig Cohen, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Because security is difficult, local nongovernmental organizations are required to distribute aid, but there is a lack of trust amongst NGOs and other powers that hampers distribution. Pakistani NGOs are often targets of violent attacks by Islamist militants in the FATA. There is so much hostility to any hint of foreign influence, that the American branch of Save the Children was distributing funding anonymously in the region as of July 2007.[7]

Mining

The FATA contain proved commercially viable reserves of marble, copper, limestone and coal. However, in the current socio-political conditions, there is no chance of their exploitation in a profitable manner.

Industrialization

Industrialization of the FATA is another route or remedy proposed for a rapid breaking up of the tribal barriers and promoting the cause of integration. The process of industrialization through a policy of public/private partnership would not only provide employment opportunities and economic benefits but also assist in bringing the youth of the tribal area at par with those of the developed cities in the rest of the country.

Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs)

The concept of setting up ROZs in FATA and Afghanistan is an element in the United States Government's counter-terrorism and regional economic integration strategies.

Irrigation projects

Water is scarce in the FATA. When the British forces occupied Malakand they started work on the Amandara headworks to divert the water from the Swat River through a tunnel to irrigate the plains of Mardan and Charsadda. The aim was not to get more wheat or sugarcane, but to ‘tame the wild tribes’.

Education

Literacy Map Tribal Areas, Source:[25]

The FATA does not have a university. A system of reserved seats is kept in universities in Pakistan. There is no concrete plan to make a full-fledged university there to benefit them.

The FATA's literacy rate is 22%[25], which is well below the 56%[23] average in Pakistan. 35.8%[25] of the males, and only 7.5%[25] of females receive education, whereas on average throughout the nation, 44%[23] of women do.

Agency Literacy rate 2007[25]
Male Female Total
Khyber 57.2% 10.1% 34.2%
Kurram 37.9% 14.4% 26.5%
South Waziristan 32.3% 4.3% 20%
Orakzai 29.5% 3.4% 17%
Mohmand 28.5% 3.5% 16.6%
Bajour 27.9% 3.1% 16.5%
North Waziristan (1998)[26] 26.77% 1.47% 15.88%

Health

There is one hospital bed for every 2,179 people in the FATA, compared to one in 1,341 in Pakistan as a whole. There is one doctor for every 7,670[27] people compared to one doctor per 1,226 people in Pakistan as a whole. 43% of FATA citizens have access to clean drinking water.[28] Much of the population is suspicious about modern medicine, and some militant groups are openly hostile to vaccinations.

In June 2007, a Pakistani Doctor was blown up in his car "after trying to counter the anti-vaccine propaganda of an imam in Bajaur", Pakistani officials told the New York Times.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Area, Population, Density and Urban/Rural Proportion by Administrative Units". Population Census Organization, Government of Pakistan. http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/area_pop/area_pop.html. Retrieved 2010-04-11. 
  2. ↑ "Population". FATA Secretariat. http://www.fata.gov.pk/subpages/population.php. Retrieved 2010-04-11. 
  3. ↑ http://www.ecp.gov.pk/docs/FATA.pdf 'Election Commission of Pakistan'
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ Ahmed Rashid 'Militancy will not run out of steam'. BBC news 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2008-09-22
  6. ↑ The Truth About Talibanistan – TIME
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 [2] Perlez, Jane, "Aid to Pakistan in Tribal Areas Raises Concerns", July 16, 2007, accessed November 9, 2007
  8. ↑ Pakistan conflict map. BBC. 2009-05-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8047504.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Fair, C. Christine; Nicholas Howenstein, J. Alenxader Thier (December 2006). "Troubles on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border". United States Institute of Peace. http://www.usip.org/pubs/usipeace_briefings/2006/1207_pakistan_afghanistan_border.html. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Tierney, 206.
  11. ↑ Talbot, Ian (1998). Pakistan, a modern history (revised ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0312216068. 
  12. ↑ "Poll doors closed on a third of FATA women". Press Trust of India. Indiainfo.com. Sunday, February 17, 2008. http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/02/17/0802171510_pak-women.html. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
  13. ↑ Rabasa, Angel; Steven Boraz, Peter Chalk (2007). Ungoverned territories: understanding and reducing terrorism risks. RAND. p. 49. ISBN 0833041525. "The British annexed the area during the nineteenth century but never fully pacified the area." 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Bjørgo, Tore; John Horgan (2009). Leaving Terrorism Behind: Individual and Collective Disengagement. Taylor & Francis. p. 227. ISBN 0203884752. 
  15. ↑ "Analysis: Pakistan's tribal frontiers". BBC. Friday, 14 December 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1711316.stm#story. Retrieved 2009-05-19. 
  16. ↑ Ali, Shaheen Sardar; Javaid Rehman (2001). Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities of Pakistan: constitutional and legal perspectives. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 0700711597. 
  17. ↑ Ali et al., 52–53.
  18. ↑ Tierney, Stephen (2000). Accommodating national identity: new approaches in international and domestic law (21 ed.). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 190–191. ISBN 9041114009. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Crews, Robert D.; Amin Tarzi (2008). The Taliban and the crisis of Afghanistan. Harvard University Press. p. 231. ISBN 067402690X. 
  20. ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fb_shkin.htm
  21. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=_6f_3DobpdwC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=shkin,+afghanistan,+most+dangerous&source=bl&ots=WOCr6_wvfZ&sig=tSVVTvPLsdcofhuAN2WE-4xOKag&hl=en&ei=GuxHSvr5HJ-ytweAtsTYBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2
  22. ↑ Khan, Ismail (2007). "Plan ready to curb militancy in Fata, settled areas". Newsweek international edition. Dawn.com. http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/26/top4.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-27. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/19-economics-and-extremism-hh-04
  24. ↑ Markey, Daniel S. (2008). Securing Pakistan's Tribal Belt. Council on Foreign Relations. p. 5. ISBN 0876094140. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 http://fata.gov.pk/files/MICS.pdf
  26. ↑ http://www.khyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk/Departments/BOS/fatadevstat-educa-tab-74.php
  27. ↑ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Pakistan_Smart_Book_v1.pdf
  28. ↑ FATA [ Federally Administered Tribal Area ]

External links

Administrative units of Pakistan
Provinces
Territories
Islamabad Capital Territory  · Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Kashmir
 Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Agencies
Bajaur  · Khyber  · Kurram  · Mohmand  · North Waziristan  · Orakzai  · South Waziristan
Frontier Regions
Bannu  · Dera Ismail Khan  · Kohat  · Lakki Marwat  · Peshawar  · Tank