analysis: Interpreting tribal leaders of FATA —Farhat Taj
analysis: Interpreting tribal leaders of FATA —Farhat Taj
Courtesy to "Daily Times"
Anger against the Pakistan Army and the Taliban is intense and
getting more intense with every passing day and so is disappointment
with the government of Pakistan
I am compiling a list of the
tribal
leaders of FATA who have been victims of target killings from 2003
onwards. This is still a work in progress and my estimate is that the
names in the final list would be well over 1,000. There is a widespread
perception in FATA that the intelligence agencies of Pakistan have
killed the tribal leaders through their proxies, the Taliban. Those who
have managed to stay alive have either fled FATA or face grave security
threats. The media in Pakistan have generally ignored them. The wider
society in Pakistan never looks into their predicament. Sometimes,
however, the media do interview them. But they cannot speak openly. If
they do, they would meet the same fate as their assassinated
colleagues. But still they open up their hearts through connotations.
One has to be very sensitive and thoughtful to extract the real message
from what they say in media interviews.
To our good luck, Khan
has made it easy for us to understand what the tribal leaders wish to
communicate. Let me first introduce Khan. He is a son of Pakhtunkhwa
and has written a revealing book, Armageddon in Pakistan: The Crisis of
a Failed Feudal Economy. I suggest to the readers to read this book for
an interesting perspective on the root cause of the socio-economic
problem in Pakistan and its linkages with the current insecurity in
FATA, i.e. the crisis of feudal democracy and a feudal military.
Following is an extract from the book in which Khan is interpreting the
words of two tribal leaders from a TV interview. The interviews were
recorded following a deadly suicide attack on a mosque filled with
worshippers in Khyber Agency.
“The mosque blast was done through
a remote control device by some external hand.” The interpretation is
that he surely does not feel it was the US (India or Israel) since
otherwise he would clearly say it. The vague phrase of an external hand
implies that he may be eliminated in case he spells out the truth.
“It was to create chaos by the Americans.” This implies that he can be killed saying otherwise.
“Presently
all the development funds for FATA are used only to bring death and
destruction in the tribal areas.” In this he wants to say that the
military establishment gets dollars from the US for FATA development
and fills its own pockets.
“All people have left tribal areas,
look at the refugee camps.” Here the tribal leader is cautious. He
speaks of peace and justice before any development. He wishes to say
that all the governments, both military and civilian, have brought
death and destruction in the tribal area for the last so many decades
and no peace or development.
“Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR),
the old colonial law for the tribal areas, still remains in place.”
This is a criticism of all rulers, whether civil or military, of
Pakistan.
“The representatives of FATA (in parliament) cannot do
anything for their people.” This means all the people of FATA,
including their parliamentarians, are helpless.
“FATA needs
democracy; it should be in control of political parties.” Here he takes
pride in his early history of tribal democracy in the form of the
tribal jirga (assemblies). All this has been destroyed by the
intelligence agencies of Pakistan and the Taliban through assassination
of tribal leaders all over FATA.
“Almost 10 million people live
in FATA on the border with Afghanistan, but Pakistan does not consider
their problems as the problems of Pakistan.” Here he implies that the
tribal people almost hate the military and all governments of Pakistan
for all the misery they have been in, whereas the tribal people
sacrificed all the time for the state.
“We rebuked Nehru when he
came to our region after the colonialists had left India, even then
Pakistan does not care for us.” This implies that the military and the
governments of Pakistan are not friends of the tribal people.
“Most
attacks are on houses, most of the people dying in the war are
innocent.” Here he is not referring to drone attacks, otherwise he
would say it clearly without any hesitation. He means to say that the
Taliban and the army are killing innocent people.
“Wherever the
Pakhtun go, they take their culture with them. The Pakhtun working in
the Emirates have more facilities, more education for children. We
cannot have such environment for our children in the Frontier province
and FATA.” This means he has seen the world and wishes that he could
have the same development and peaceful environment in FATA. He
considers himself next to none. He is angry that the tribal children
could not have all these things in their homeland. He hates going away
from his people. That is why he says wherever he goes he takes along
his culture and would always like to speak in Pashto with his own
people in other countries. All civil and military governments did
nothing for FATA.
“We Pakhtuns are not terrorists. We like to
show love and empathy; we are not the way we are portrayed; we wish
other people would understand.” By implication, the propaganda of the
establishment and pro-establishment forces that all Pakhtuns are
against the Americans is being disclaimed here. Anger towards the
Taliban and the military is shown here. The predicament is very painful
for a simple tribesman or woman.
“Hidden forces are creating
insecurity in people’s lives.” This means the Taliban and the military.
Any vague phrase like this means truth cannot be stated for fear of his
life.
The reason why I reproduced these from the above-mentioned
book is to warn my fellow Pakistanis, especially in Punjab, to pay
attention to FATA. Anger against the Pakistan Army and the Taliban is
intense and getting more intense with every passing day and so is
disappointment with the government of Pakistan. FATA may soon be doing
down the path on which East Pakistan went and became Bangladesh.
Pakistanis on the eastern side of the Indus remain obsessed with
anti-Americanism and Indian and Jewish conspiracies. All this is
nonsense for the people of FATA. They are sick and tired of the
Taliban, the establishment’s abuse of their land for strategic aims and
the apathy of fellow Pakistanis in Punjab, the biggest federating unit
of Pakistan. Any eventual damage to the integrity of Pakistan in FATA
will also be the responsibility of influential Punjabis in politics,
media, academia and civil society in general, for they have criminally
chosen to ignore the establishment’s atrocities in the area.
The
writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender
Research, University of Oslo, and a member of Aryana Institute for
Regional Research and Advocacy. She can be reached at bergen34@yahoo.co
In : Farhat Taj
Notes