Pakistan’s tribal areas

A holy war was launched by the US supported by Zia and his government against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in which the tribesmen were armed with sophisticated weapons and encouraged to fight the Soviet forces. The turmoil across our western border has now further complicated matters. Rather than wait for the situation to change and normalcy to prevail on our western borders which is likely to take some time; it would be desirable to speed up the process and take steps to change the situation in the area to bring it into the 21st century. As a result of the revolution that has taken place in the information media, the people of this area are better informed now about events in the world and more conscious of their rights. Rather than carry on with the system that has prevailed in the tribal areas for over a century, it is important that the people should be brought into the mainstream of life in the country.

Apart from major educational and development programmes, the people of this part of Pakistan, should be allowed to participate adequately in politics. Political parties should be allowed to function in the area, elections held and the people allowed to have a say in their future. This will bring them closer to their fellow countrymen in other parts of the county with common aims on ideological rather than on tribal or religious lines. This will necessarily take some time but is the only way of assimilating the people of these territories into the main stream of life in the country. The majority of the people of the tribal areas do not support the present wave of terrorist attacks being carried out in the country but have no voice in their affairs. This would involve them directly in the affairs of their area that can help to improve the situation. It is true that in one or two settled districts, the law and order situation is not satisfactory but this has been the fallout of the deteriorating situation in the tribal areas which has become the nursery for the spread of terrorism in the settled districts of the country. To rely on military measures alone is not the answer and is not likely to succeed.

The writer is a political analyst