The DSS Department in collaboration with Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) hosted a Round Table Conference on “The Evolving Constitutional and Legal Regime in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas” on Tuesday October 4th, 2011. The roundtable discussion, had constitutional and legal experts such as Justice Mian Ajmal, Dr Tariq Hassan, Abdul Lateef Afridi, Daniel Loyacano and Babar Sattar as main speakers and attracted an audience of civil society organizations, students, academics and media personnel.
Former chief justice Peshawar High Court Mian Ajmal, who was chairman of the FCR Reforms Committee, gave an introduction to the history of invasions carried out in the FATA region. He outlined how the area had seen several military incursions and invasions over the last centuries and how that had had a direct impact on its culture and society. As a part of the FCR reforms committee, Justice Ajmal expressed his joy over the recent signing off on the reforms by the president. Senior legal adviser, Dr Tariq Hussain, emphasized the need for an inclusive system of governance for the FATA region. He said that the state of Pakistan needed to discourage parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and provincial prejudices – factors, which had contributed immensely to the general apathetic neglect directed towards the region. He also said that non-state actors such as the civil societies and the media needed to play their part in order to bolster social and economic growth in the tribal areas.
Senior lawyer and member of the Awami National Party, Abdul Lateef Afridi, gave a historic background of FATA and identified the disconnect between citizen and state in the region. He said that the current treatment of FATA was a continuation of British policies – designed to marginalise and exclude the territory. Afridi said that any method of initiating strong reforms in Pakistan must include the integration of FATA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Daniel Loyacano, representative of National Democratic Institute (NDI), also spoke to the gathering and conveyed the good wishes of the international community in restoring peace and good governance in FATA and the region at large. He emphasized the importance of strengthening democracy in Pakistan and outlined his organization’s work in this regard. He said that the NDI had been actively promoting FATA reforms and as a result of NDI’s work, several political parties submitted recommendations in 2009 and 2011 for reforms as well. Babar Sattar, lawyer and columnist, critically evaluated the legal framework and law and order situation in the tribal region. He said that an almost “apartheidesque” situation has been created in FATA.