The long-awaited process to merge Pakistan’s militancy-hit Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with the neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has begun after the passage of the merger bill with the constitutionally required two-thirds majority in the parliament.

The National Assembly and the Senate separately passed the bill as all political parties represented in the parliament except two voted for it. Subsequently, on May 27, the merger bill was adopted by the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite protests by those opposed to the decision to complete the constitutional process.

Pakistan’s biggest Islamic party, JUI-F, headed by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and the secular-nationalist PkMAP, led by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, opposed the merger and their politicians staged a walkout from the parliament, terming it a “black day” when the bill was put to vote. In fact, the two had held up the decision of the merger for about two years by preventing their ally, the ruling PML-N headed by deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, from reaching a political consensus on the issue.

The JUI-F and PkMAP argued that the people of FATA should have been asked in a referendum whether they wanted a separate province or merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The two parties could make it an issue in the July 25 general election in FATA and seek support from voters wanting a separate province.

The bill got overwhelming support in the parliament, even though it is rare for the government and opposition to agree on anything due to the confrontational state of politics in Pakistan. FATA would no longer be mentioned in the constitution as an administrative unit of Pakistan. Spread over 27,222 square kilometers with a population of five million, FATA until now had a special status where most Pakistani laws didn’t apply.

A judicial structure in place of the draconian Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and police system like the rest of Pakistan would be gradually introduced in FATA by 2019. 

Though FATA has just 2.38 percent of Pakistan’s population, 3 percent of the total area and 1.5 percent share in the national economy, it has significant strategic importance.

Bordering Afghanistan, which has been suffering conflict for the past 40 years, FATA was the staging post for the Pakistan and US-backed Afghan Mujahideen fighting the Soviet occupying forces in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Given the poor state of Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan, it wasn’t surprising that the Afghan government termed FATA’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a violation of the 1921 agreement signed between Afghanistan and the British government then ruling undivided India.

Rahimullah Yusufzai

After the US invasion of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in October 2001 to avenge the 9/11 attacks and destroy Al-Qaeda, FATA served as a refuge for fleeing militants who crossed over to Pakistan. Owing to the presence of militants affiliated to Al-Qaeda, and the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, the Haqqani network, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other outlawed groups in FATA, US officials used to refer to it as the most dangerous place in the world.

Since 2003 Pakistan’s security forces have launched 14 major military operations to establish the state’s writ and capture territory held by the militants, who escaped to Afghanistan.

Given the poor state of Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan, it wasn’t surprising that the Afghan government termed FATA’s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a violation of the 1921 agreement signed between Afghanistan and the British government then ruling undivided India.

Kabul said it would approach the UN and International Court of Justice against the decision. Pakistan termed it interference in its internal affairs and said the parliament’s decision on the merger reflected the will of the people. Protests were also staged in the Afghan capital, Kabul, against the merger. President Ashraf Ghani’s government has also opposed border fencing being carried out by Pakistan as it considers the 2,500 km-long Durand Line as an unresolved border dispute.

Ironically, protests against the merger were also organized in Pakistan by the JUI-F, the Islamic party, when the bill was presented for approval in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in Peshawar. The JUI-F has a soft corner for the Taliban while the Afghans who protested against the merger in Kabul are bitterly anti-Taliban. Generally, though, celebrations broke out in FATA when its merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was formalized. Many Pakhtun nationalists saw it as the unification of the ethnic Pakhtuns into one administrative unit in the federal state and strengthening of their voice in Pakistan.

The implementation phase of the merger would certainly pose a challenge. FATA has the lowest socio-economic indicators in Pakistan with only 7 percent of its mostly mountainous area under cultivation, a low literacy rate of 33.3 percent and just 8.9 percent of the population having access to piped drinking water. Though the government has promised special development funds of nearly Rs100 billion ($864,000) a year for FATA for the next 10 years, spending the money in a timely and transparent way would be difficult because of lack of capacity of the relevant institutions and lack of security.

Tackling militants, many based across the border in Afghanistan, would remain a major concern as acts of terrorism continue across FATA despite the significant drop in the number of attacks. 

Another challenge would be to meet the timelines by holding the local government elections in FATA in October 2018 and the polls for the provincial assembly a year later. As the aim of the merger is to make Fata stable, bring it on a par with rest of Pakistan, and prevent the return of the militants, missing the timelines and failing to provide the needed resources would cause disappointment to the tribal people who have attached high hopes with the change in the status of their region. 

• Rahimullah Yusufzai is senior political and security analyst of Pakistan. He was the first to interview Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and twice interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1998. Twitter: @rahimyusufzai1