PESHAWAR: Six years after the merger of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal territories with the adjoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, protesters in Khyber tribal district observed May 31 as a “black day” on Friday, saying they wanted people to know on the anniversary of the event that the integration had “totally failed.”
The merger of tribal areas, officially executed in 2018, aimed to integrate these historically semi-autonomous places into the national mainstream. These regions, collectively known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), were used as a buffer by the British colonial rulers to mitigate the threat of the Russian Empire during the “Great Game.”
The buffer was governed through the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), often criticized for legalizing harsh measures such as collective punishment, which allowed British-appointed political agents to settle disputes and deal with potential threats without formal court proceedings.
The merger of FATA with KP in the wake of the threat of militancy from the area in recent years was viewed as a significant step toward bringing governance and development to its residents. However, the transition faced numerous challenges like limited financial resources that hindered rapid progress.
Speaking to Arab News, a tribal elder, Malik Hazrat Wali Afridi, said that protesters were observing May 31 as a black day, calling for the reversal of FATA’s integration with KP.
“The new system that has replaced our tribal system has totally failed and collapsed here because of zero homework or taking the tribal people into confidence,” he said. “It has not brought any positive changes to the lives of people.”
“The government has neither provided the promised development funds of Rs10 billion [$35.71 million] annually to the merged districts nor have we got the three percent share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award during the last six years,” he continued, referring to a constitutional arrangement outlining the distribution of financial resources between the federal government and the provinces.
Another tribal elder, Malik Yar Muhammad, said the merger was forced upon the residents of the tribal areas.
He said a grand jirga, with representatives from Bajaur, Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai and North and South Waziristan tribal districts, would be held on June 21 to decide the future course of action of the tribal population of the area.
“In our upcoming grand tribal jirga, we will decide whether to approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan or hold countrywide protests and sit-ins against the FATA-KP merger,” he added. “We have a one-point demand, which is the reversal of the FATA-KP merger, and nothing else.”
Speaking to Arab News, Aamer Raza, a political analyst who teaches at the University of Peshawar, said one of the demands of protesting tribesmen regarding the judicious use of the resources of their area to benefit the locals was justified.
However, he noted this did not require the reversal of the merger, adding that legislation could be enacted to ensure employment opportunities for the residents of the area along with a fair share of their resources.
“It would have been better if a system design approach had been taken [before the integration] where the impacts of the change could be studied before the initiative was taken,” he added.
Asked about the protest, the provincial government spokesman, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, declined to comment, saying the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Arab News tried to reach out to federal information minister Attaullah Tarar for a comment but did not get a response.
