Federally Administered Tribal Areas

A region of Pakistan is the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), the name making the distinction that it is outside the regular Pakistani provincial system. Under British rule, the area was called the Northwest Frontier, and it is still sometimes called the Northwest Frontied Province'.

(CC) Image: Pahari Sahib
The blue portion of this map shows Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous Tribal Agencies.

Along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Pakistan exercises a measure of authority over Pakistan's Tribal Agencies. an unique administrative and political status from the British colonial rule in 1849. They were demarcated, in 1893, from Afghanistan by the Durand Line. Governance is by federal Political Agents and tribal elders, "while leaving the people with their traditions and internal independence. "

Most of the population of the seven Tribal agencies are traditional, conservative muslims. The agencies are: the Bajaur Agency, the Mohmand Agency, the Khyber Agency, the Orakzai Agency, the Kurram Agency and North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

Ethnicity

According to the Pakistani government, the FATA contain about a doze major tribes with several smaller tribes and sub-tribes. Utmankhel, Mohmand, Tarkani and Safi are the major tribes living in Bajaur and Mohmand. Afridi, Shilmani, Shinwari, Mulagori Orakzai are settled in Khyber and Orakzai while the FRs of Peshawar and Kohat are occupied by Afridi. A good mix of Turi, Bangash, and Masozai inhabit Kurram Agency. Major tribes of North and South Waziristan are Darwesh Khel Wazirs with a pocket of Mahsuds in the central part of the region. Other tribes of the region are Utmanzai, Ahmadzai Dawar, Saidgai, Kharasin and Gurbaz. Bhittani occupies FR Lakki and Tank, while FR Bannu is Wazir. Ustrana and Shirani tribes live in FR D.I. Khan.

Some of the tribes are Pashtun -- the same ethnic group that was the Taliban's power base in Afghanistan.

Economic development

The FATA have not had the same priority for economic development as has the rest of Pakistan. Efforts were concentrated around sectoral facilities and benefiting few influential and politically active sections. "This ad hoc approach deprived large segments of the population from social uplift, and economic empowerment." Lack of economic development has contributed to political isolation.

Ijaz Khan, a professor at the University of Peshawar, finds a fundamental incompatibility in the government position. Unless terrorism is eliminated rather than contained, the latter, in his opinion, the government position, economic development cannot be secured. Second, the programs do not reflect "the FATA’s evolving socio-economic landscape and power structure".

Security issues

There are increasing tensions between outside militants, the main FATA population, and militant residents. The government of Pakistan, however, has not yet adopted a counterinsurgency method that integrates political, economic and military measures.

Among the major actors are the Taliban under Mullah Omar, former Soviet-era groups who trace their origin to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (i.e., Hezbe Islami under Gulbadin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani group), al-Qaeda, and indigenous Sunni militants.

Dealing with the problem is challenging because it involves tribal, national, religious and transnational issues. The Pakistani government remembers the breakaway, in 1971, of what was then East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh. There remains a sovereignty issue, between India and Pakistan, about Kashmir. Pakistan, therefore, is sensitive to any possible separatist movements, and sees a FATA dominated by outside militants as such a situation.