Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Frontier Regions

 Flag  Location of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas 
Coordinates	33°0′0″N 70°10′0″E
Country	Pakistan
Administrative unit	Federal territory
Components	7 Agencies 6 Frontier Regions
Capital	Peshawar
Government
- Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa	Syed Masood Kausar
Area
- Total	27,220 km2 (10,509.7 sq mi)
Population (1998)
- Total	3,176,331
- Density	116.7/km2 (302.2/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC+5)
Website	http://www.fata.gov.pk

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are a group of small administrative units in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan in the south, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. They comprise seven tribal agencies and six smaller frontier regions with considerable autonomy from the rest of Pakistan.

Administrative divisions

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas consists of seven Tribal Areas and are called the agencies, which are from north to south:

§  Bajaur Agency

§  Mohmand Agency

§  Khyber Agency

§  Orakzai Agency

§  Kurram Agency

§  North Waziristan Agency

§  South Waziristan Agency

Agencies are further divided into Assistant Political Agencies, subdivisions, and tehsils. According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the FATA consists of the following divisions:

Ambar Tehsil Yakka Ghund Tehsil Prang Ghar Tehsil

Agency	Assistant Political Agency	Subdivision	Tehsil
Khyber Agency	Bara	Bara	None
	Jamrud	Jamrud	Town Committee Jamrud Jamrud Tehsil Mullah Gori Tehsil
	Landi Kotal	Landi Kotal	Town Committee, Landi Kotal Landi Kotal Tehsil
Mohmand Agency	Upper Mohmand	Upper Mohmand	Safi Tehsil Upper Mohmand Tehsil Halimzai Tehsil
	Yakka Ghund	Lower Mohmand	Pindyali Tehsil
	Bajaur Agency	Khar	Khar Khar Tehsil Salarzai Tehsil Uthman Khel Tehsil
Nawagai		Nawagai	Mamund Tehsil Chamarkand Tehsil Nawagai Tehsil Barrang Tehsil
Orakzai Agency	Upper Tehsil	Upper Tehsil	Upper Tehsil Ismailzai Tehsil
	Lower Tehsil	Lower Tehsil	Lower Tehsil Central Tehsil
Kurram Agency	Upper Kurram	Upper Kurram	Town Committee, Parachinar Upper Kurram
	Lower Kurram	Lower Kurram	Town Committee Sadda Lower Kurram
	Central Kurram	None	None
North Waziristan Agency	Miram Shah	Miram Shah	Town Committee, Miram Shah Miram Shah Tehsil Ghulam Khan Tehsil Datta Khel Tehsil
	Mir Ali	Mir Ali	Mir Ali Tehsil Spinwam Tehsil Shewa Tehsil
	Razmak	Razmak	Razmak Tehsil Dossali Tehsil Garyum Tehsil
South Waziristan Agency	Sarwakai	Sarwakai	Sarwakai Tehsil Tiarza Tehsil
	Ladha	Ladha	Ladha Tehsil Sararogha Tehsil Makin Tehsil
	Wana	Wana	Wana Tehsil Bermal Tehsil Toi Khullah Tehsil

Frontier Regions

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas also contain six small administrative units called Frontier Regions which are named after adjacent settled districts. The administration of the Frontier Regions is carried out by the district coordination officer of a neighboring named district. The overall administration of the frontier regions is carried out by the FATA Secretariat, based in Peshawar and reporting to the Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The six regions are:

§  Frontier Region Bannu

§  Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan (Darazinda)

§  Frontier Region Kohat (Darra Adam Khel)

§  Frontier Region Lakki Marwat

§  Frontier Region Peshawar

§  Frontier Region Tank (Jandola)

Main cities

§  Landi Kotal

§  Darra Adam Khel

§  Wana

§  Miran Shah

§  Parachinar

§  Khar

§  Ghalanai

Geography

The FATA are bordered by: Afghanistan to the west with the border marked by the Durand Line, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab to the east, and Balochistan to the south.

The seven Tribal Areas lie in a north-to-south strip that is adjacent to the west side of the six Frontier Regions , which also lie in a north-to-south strip. The areas within each of those two regions are geographically arranged in a sequence from north to south.

The geographical arrangement of the seven Tribal Areas in order from north to south is: Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan, South Waziristan. The geographical arrangement of the six Frontier Regions in order from north to south is: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank, Dera Ismael Khan.

Demographics

The total population of the FATA was estimated in 2000 to be about 3,341,070 people, or roughly 2% of Pakistan's population. Only 3.1% of the population resides in established townships. It is thus the most rural administrative unit in Pakistan.

Federal type of governance of FATA and Frontier Regions

The region is only nominally controlled by the central and Federal government of Pakistan. The President of Pakistan has the authority only to implement the rules in FATA. The Preisident appoints and nominates the Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP) who exercises the power of the president.

The Constitution of Pakistan governs FATA through the same rules which were left by 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 assembly cannot implement the law directly as it can do in other parts of the province or Settled Areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This has created a political vacuum in FATA, Frontier Regions and PATA. Such lawless conditions are said to serve the interests of terrorists, as there is absence of various government departments like police, judiciary, local governments, and civic amenities. There are no High Courts and Supreme Courts of Pakistan in Tribal Areas.

According to journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban and Descent into Chaos, FATA is practically controlled entirely by the Pakistani Taliban.

The mainly Pashtun tribes that inhabit the areas are fiercely independent and peaceful. Until friction following the fall of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, the tribes had friendly relations with Pakistan's central government. These Tribes are governed by the Collective Punishment or Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), introduced under the British Raj.

People of FATA are represented both in the National Assembly of Pakistan by 12 independent Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) who are elected. They are represented in the Senate of Pakistan by eight senators who are selected by these 12 MNAs, mostly by the amount of money they possess. FATA has no representation in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, although they live a few yards apart and are Pashtuns.

Tribal political candidates have some 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 they were selected by Tribal Elders or Maliks for the last one hundred years.

The head of each tribal agency is the political agent who represents the President of Pakistan and the appointed Governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The political agent wields extensive powers over the Tribesmen and can give Collective punishment through Frontier Crimes Regulations. These punishments are considered as not according to Human Rights Conventions.

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 four Tehsildars and four to nine Naib (or deputy) Tehsildars with the requisite supporting staff.

While the difference only in the chain of command of each Frontier Region from FATA is that it is headed by the DC/DCO or Deputy Commissioner Officer, (for FR Peshawar, DC/DCO Peshawar and so on). Under his supervision there is one Assistant Political Agent and about one or two Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars and support staff.

Each Tribal Agency has roughly 2–3,000 Khasadars and levies force of irregulars and up to five to nine wings of Frontier Corps Border Rangers or Civilian Armed Forces, for maintenance of law and order in the Agency and borders security. The Frontier Corps Force is headed by army officers posted by the general headquarters of the Pakistan Army, and it reports to Interior Ministry of Pakistan and is under Federal Government.

According to a 2009 BBC survey, categorized as "grossly exaggerated" by the Pakistan Army which was fighting the militants there, the Taliban were present in all FATA agencies, and in full control of Waziristan, Orakzai and Bajaur.

Women and voting

All of the FATA's adults were legally allowed to vote in the Majlis-e-Shoora of Pakistan under the "adult franchise" granted in 1996. Stephen Tierney, in Accommodating National Identity, reported that women came out to do so in the thousands for the 1997 office, possibly motivated by competition for voter numbers among the tribes. However, Ian Talbot in Pakistan, a Modern History states that elders and religious leaders attempted to prevent female participation by threatening punishment against tribesmen whose women registered, leading to under-registration in the female population. In 2008, the Taliban ordered women in the FATA regions of Bajaur, Kurram and Mohmand not to vote under threat of "serious punishment," while Mangal Bagh, chief of the Lashkar-e-Islam, forbade women to vote in the Jamrud and Bara subdivisions of the Khyber Agency.

History

The region was annexed in the 19th century during the British colonial period, and though the British never succeeded in completely calming unrest in the region, it afforded them some protection from Afghanistan. The British Raj attempted to control the population of the annexed tribal regions with the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which allowed considerable power to govern to local nobles so long as these nobles were willing to meet the needs of the British. Due to the unchecked discretionary power placed into the hands of the jirga put into place by these nobles and to the human rights violations that ensued, the FCR has come to be known as the "black law." The annexed areas continued under the same governance after the Partition of India, through the Dominion of Pakistan in 1946 and into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.

According to the United States Institute of Peace, the character of the region underwent a shift beginning in the 1980s with the entry into the region of the Mujahideen and CIA Operation Cyclone, against the Soviet Union prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of Soviet Union.

Voting and parliamentary representation

In 1996, the government of Pakistan finally granted the FATA the long requested "adult franchise", under which every adult would have the right to vote for their own representatives in the Majlis-e-Shoora. However, the FATA were not allowed to organize political parties. Islamist candidates were able to campaign through mosques and madrassahs, as a result of which mullahs were elected to represent the FATA in the National Assembly in 1997 and 2002. This was a departure from prior tribal politics, where power was focused in the hands of secular authorities, Maliks.

Rise of the TTP

In 2001, the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda began entering into the region. In 2003, Taliban and al-Qaeda forces sheltered in the FATA began crossing the border into Afghanistan, attacking military and police. Shkin, Afghanistan is a key location for these frequent battles. This heavily fortified military base has housed mostly American special operations forces since 2002 and is located just six kilometers from the Pakistani border. It is considered the most dangerous location in Afghanistan. With the encouragement of the United States, 80,000 Pakistani troops entered the FATA in March 2004 to search for al-Qaeda operatives. They were met with fierce resistance from Pakistani Taliban. It was not the elders, but the Pakistani Taliban who negotiated a Truce with the army, giving an indication of the extent to which the Pakistani Taliban had taken control. Eight more times between 2004 and 2006 troops entered the region, into South Waziristan and North Waziristan, and faced further Pakistani Taliban resistance. Peace Accords entered into in 2004 and 2006 set terms whereby the tribesmen in the area would stop attacking Afghanistan and the Pakistanis would halt major military actions against the FATA, release all prisoners and permit tribesmen to carry small guns.

Pakistan’s new Waziristan strategy

On June 4, 2007, the National Security Council of Pakistan met to decide the fate of Waziristan and take up a number of political and administrative decisions to control "Talibanization" of the area. The meeting was chaired by President Pervez Musharraf and it was attended by the Chief Ministers and Governors of all four provinces. They discussed the deteriorating law and order situation and the threat posed to state security. To crush the armed militancy in the Tribal regions and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government decided to intensify and reinforce law enforcement and military activity, take action against certain madrassahs, and jam illegal FM radio stations.

Economy



District map of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA

 FATA is the most impoverished part of the nation, despite being home to 2.4% of Pakistan's population, it has only 1.5% of Pakistan's economy. With a per capita income of only $663 in 2010 and only 34% of households managing to rise above the poverty level.

Due to the FATA's tribal organization, the economy is chiefly pastoral, with some agriculture practiced in the region's few fertile valleys. Its total irrigated land is roughly 1,000 square kilometres. The country does not have a system of banks. The region is a major center for opium trafficking, as well the smuggling of other contraband.

Foreign aid to the region is a difficult proposition, according to Craig Cohen, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Because security is difficult, local nongovernmental organizations are required to distribute aid, but there is a lack of trust amongst NGOs and other powers that hampers distribution. Pakistani NGOs are often targets of violent attacks by Islamist militants in the FATA. Because of the extensive hostility to any hint of foreign influence, the American branch of Save the Children was distributing funding anonymously in the region as of July 2007.

Mining

The FATA contain proved commercially viable reserves of marble, copper, limestone and coal. However, in the current socio-political conditions, there is no chance of their exploitation in a profitable manner.

Industrialization

Industrialization of the FATA is another route or remedy proposed for rapidly breaking up tribal barriers and promoting integration. The process of industrialization through a policy of public/private partnership would not only provide employment opportunities and economic benefits but also assist in bringing the youth of the tribal area on par with those of developed cities in the rest of the country.

Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs)

The concept of setting up ROZs in FATA and Afghanistan is an element in the United States Government's counter-terrorism and regional economic integration strategies.

Irrigation projects

Water is scarce in the FATA. When the British forces occupied Malakand they started work on the Amandara headworks to divert the Swat River through a tunnel to irrigate the plains of Mardan and Charsadda. The aim was not to get more wheat or sugarcane, but to ‘tame the wild tribes’.

Education

The FATA does not have a university, but seats are reserved for FATA students in Pakistani universities. There is no concrete plan to establish a full-fledged university within FATA.

The FATA's literacy rate is 22%, which is well below the nation-wide rate of 56%. 35.8% of men, and only 7.5% of women receive education, compared to a nation-wide 44% of women.

Agency	Literacy rate 2007
	Male	Female	Total
Khyber	57.2%	10.1%	34.2%
Kurram	37.9%	14.4%	26.5%
South Waziristan	32.3%	4.3%	20%
Orakzai	29.5%	3.4%	17%
Mohmand	28.5%	3.5%	16.6%
Bajour	27.9%	3.1%	16.5%
North Waziristan (1998)	26.77%	1.47%	15.88%

Health

There is one hospital bed for every 2,179 people in the FATA, compared to one in 1,341 in Pakistan as a whole. There is one doctor for every 7,670 people compared to one doctor per 1,226 people in Pakistan as a whole. 43% of FATA citizens have access to clean drinking water. Much of the population is suspicious about modern medicine, and some militant groups are openly hostile to vaccinations.

In June 2007, a Pakistani Doctor was blown up in his car "after trying to counter the anti-vaccine propaganda of an imam in Bajaur", Pakistani officials told the New York Times.

Frontier Regions

The Frontier Regions (often abbreviated as FR) of Pakistan are a group of small administrative units in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), lying immediately to the east of the seven main tribal agencies and west of the settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Each of the Frontier Regions is named after an adjoining settled district and is administered by the district coordination officer (DCO) of that adjacent district. The overall administration of the Frontier Regions is carried out by the FATA Secretariat based in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The six Frontier Regions are:

Region	DCO	Area (km²)	Population	Population density (inh. per km²)
Frontier Region Bannu	M. Javed Marwat	745	19,593	26
Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan	Syed Mohsin Shah	2,008	38,990	19
Frontier Region Kohat	Mr. Siraj Ahmad	446	88,456	198
Frontier Region Lakki Marwat	M. Anwar Khan Mehsud	132	6,987	53
Frontier Region Peshawar	Sahibzada M. Anees	261	53,841	206
Frontier Region Tank	Barkat Ullah	1,221	27,216	22
Total		4,813	235,083	49