Fata: will the new governor deliver

: (Ayaz Wazir,English Columnists)


The people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will no doubt celebrate, in a befitting manner, the departure of the last remnant of a dictator who did not live up to their expectations and the appointment of the new governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata in his place. Barrister Masood Kauser, a renowned lawyer, brings with him rich legal, political and administrative experience that gives him an edge over all his predecessors in the performance of his functions as governor of this volatile region.


The post of governor of Fata and KPK is not a bed of roses. It is a very difficult and demanding job in view of the prevailing situation in Fata and KPK. This daunting task requires a lot of acumen in varied fields. It requires skill, wisdom, patience and forbearance which the new governor seems to have in abundance. Let us hope he lives up to the expectations of the people of that region.

Having successfully conducted the affairs of the provincial assembly as its speaker and then as a member of the senate in Islamabad, doing justice to his present assignment should not be a problem for him. Hailing from Kohat seems to be an added qualification as it happens to be on the periphery of the tribal areas which provided him an opportunity to see for himself the state of affairs in those areas as well as the conditions of the IDPs of district Hangu, Orakzai and Kurram tribal agencies coming to Kohat and other areas for shelter. The place itself is also not immune to the onslaught of militants in that area.

I am sure Barrister Masood realises that the importance of the governor of KPK is further enhanced, both in the country and abroad, only because of Fata and the current situation there. The responsibility devolved upon him of looking after this particular area will keep him in the limelight at all times. It is thus important for him to pay more attention to the dire problems faced by the people of Fata rather than to other ceremonial matters that he would be attending to in the province.

KPK has its own representative government which is striving hard to take the province out of the quagmire that it is stuck in. Fata has no such thing. It has no political party system operating in the areas to represent it in important meetings in Peshawar, Islamabad or elsewhere. In the absence of allegiance to any party manifesto, Fata’s representatives elected through one man-one vote are not loyal to anything except their personal interests. As a result, the people have no one to look up to except the governor to plead their case with the ones who matter in Islamabad or Rawalpindi. They have great hopes that the new governor will represent them properly where others before him have failed to do so.

While Barrister Masood has many qualities I would like to point out that the job of the governor of KPK and Fata is not an easy one. To do justice to the job, one needs the values of a saint and the courage of a lion. You have to fight on all fronts to redress the grievances of the people in a situation where things are not as simple as they appear on the surface.

The army is deeply entrenched in this war on terror – which was not ours to begin with but was imposed upon us – and now finds it difficult to get out of the situation. The people on the other hand, having seen enough of death and destruction, are tired and want peace. They are not prepared to give more sacrifices or to become IDPs in their own areas while peace still remains only a very distant hope. They want the civilian government to take over full responsibility of administering the area. They want rehabilitation and reconstruction of the devastation caused during military operations. They want withdrawal of troops, who have taken over their villages, to the main forts and their own military encampments. They want them to be available for action, if so required, but only by the civil government.

General Kiyani should do for the tribesmen what he did for the army in restoring its lost image by curtailing its role in civil affairs without disengaging from combat position. Similarly, he should prevail upon those who matter for disengaging troops from civilian affairs in Fata which will not only enhance its image but will help bridge the trust deficit that so widely exists between the army and the people there. If the new governor can prevail upon the army to do this, it will send strong signals to everyone in the area that the new governor is serious and means business.

Alongside this, he should ensure the government promptly makes payment of the unpaid compensation owed to the tribesmen for the losses they suffered. They should not only be paid the amount equal to actual loss but a little bit extra so that they can reconstruct their destroyed properties and begin their lives afresh with the help of the government.

The people of Fata have full knowledge of the financial assistance being given to the federal government by different countries in the name of reconstruction of the destroyed areas in the tribal agencies, which is lying in government coffers undisbursed. They are also aware of the liberal compensation paid to victims in other areas of the country. Their ire has been aroused at this poor treatment. They are also aware of similar treatment meted to them by the media, for reasons which are unclear, in the coverage of major catastrophes like Yakaghund and Ghalanai in Mohmand agency compared to wider coverage of minor incidents elsewhere in the country. These injustices have to end if we genuinely want to end the grievances of the people of Fata.

The people of KPK in general and Fata in particular have great hopes and expectations from the new governor. They want him to play a positive role for improvement of the security situation in that area. Before accepting this challenging job he must have pondered over the objectives he aims to achieve and we hope that foremost among these must have been establishing peace in the area and through peace, development of this neglected area.

It would be very sagacious of the new governor to visit all the seven tribal agencies to interact with the people there like the founding father of the political party he represents. That will not only set the ball rolling to bring peace and prosperity to the region but will lead to the restoration of confidence between the people and the government.

Barrister Masood Kauser has achieved what an ordinary worker of any political party aspires to achieve. He has nothing at stake at this stage in his life except the post that he occupies. This is a golden opportunity for him to go even higher and carve a place for himself in the history of this area if he brings peace and development to Fata. His late elder brother Ahmad Faraz, the world-renowned poet and my teacher, left a high benchmark of courage and devotion for achieving an objective for his younger brother to follow. I hope and pray that his younger brother not only reaches but surpasses this benchmark. If not, he will pass into the dustbin of history as yet another petty usurper of the coin of high rank like so many others before him.