Federally Administered Tribal Area: A Need for a Graduated Approach

Since 1947, the tribal area presents strategic importance to Pakistan. Jinnahs vision for management of the tribal area philosophically contrasted the British security oriented frontier policy. Unfortunately, the succeeding Pakistani governments did not pursue Jinnahs vision of socio-economic reforms as the main pillar of its FATA policy to shape the public perception for integration of FATA into mainstream Pakistan. In current circumstances in which security and good governance are a priority, major change in constitutional status of the FATA has a potential to trigger other controversies and may provide a rallying point for militants who receive overt or tacit approval from fence-sitters and the government loyal segments in the FATA. A graduated approach of strengthening the existing tribal structure and undertaking bottom-up administrative, judicial, and political reforms can promise a long-term success against rising militancy. The crux of the reforms should be to develop an internal change by resurrecting the tribal traditions and degrading the militants ideology. These reforms would act as an impetus for deep structural changes.