Federally Administered Tribal Areas - Governance

Governance

The region is controlled by the Federal government of Pakistan and on behalf of the President, the Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP) exercises the federal authority in the context of FATA.

The Constitution of Pakistan governs FATA through the same rules which were framed by the British in 1901 as Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). The Jurisdiction of Supreme Court and High Court of Pakistan does not extend to FATA and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), according to Article 247 and Article 248, of existing 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly has no power in FATA, and can only exercise its powers in PATA that are part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The mainly Pashtun tribes that inhabit the areas are semi-autonomous and until fall of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, the tribes had cordial relations with Pakistan's government.

People of FATA are represented in the Parliament of Pakistan by their elected representatives both in National Assembly of Pakistan and the Senate of Pakistan. FATA has 12 members in the National Assembly and 8 members in the Senate. FATA has no representation in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Tribal political candidates do have party affiliations but can only contest elections as independents, because the Political Parties Act of Pakistan has not been extended to the FATA. However, tribesmen were given the right to vote in the 1997 general elections despite the absence of the Political Parties Act. Previously only the Tribal Elders or Maliks (called Lungi-holders) were allowed to vote in the elections, since British times.

The administrative head of each tribal agency is the Political Agent who represents the President of Pakistan and the appointed Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

According to a 2007 report by the New York Times, "the political agents are widely considered corrupt bureaucrats of Pakistan Civil Service."

Each Tribal Agency, depending on its size, has about two to three Assistant Political Agents, about three to ten Tehsildars and a number of Naib Tehsildars with the requisite supporting staff.

The FRs differ from the agencies only in the chain of command so that each FR is headed by the DC/DCO of the adjacent settled district (DC/DCO Peshawar heads FR Peshawar and so on). Under his supervision there is one Assistant Political Agent and a number of Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars and support staff.

Each Tribal Agency has roughly 2–3,000 Khasadars and levies force of irregulars and up to three to nine wings of the para-military Frontier Corps for maintenance of law and order in the Agency and borders security. The Frontier Corps Force is headed by Pakistan's regular army officers and its soldiers are recruited mostly from the Pashtun tribes.

The militancy situation has, however, improved after successive military operations carried out by Pakistan Army in Bajaur, Swat, Waziristan, Orakzai and Mohmand.