Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

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Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Pakistan

• A socio-political treadmill for women, children
  and minorities

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Demographic Profile

• Total population 6.5 million people, roughly
  2 of Pakistan's population.
• The average annual population growth lower than
  provincial average of 2.8 per cent and the
  national average of 2.7 per cent (GoP, 1998).
• The average household 9.3 persons,

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Broader socio-economic featuresSource Official
FATA website
Selected development indicators for Pakistan, NWFP and FATA(1998, 2003) Selected development indicators for Pakistan, NWFP and FATA(1998, 2003) Selected development indicators for Pakistan, NWFP and FATA(1998, 2003) Selected development indicators for Pakistan, NWFP and FATA(1998, 2003)
Indicator Pakistan NWFP FATA
Literacy ratio (both sexes, ) 43.92 35.41 17.42
Male literacy ratio () 54.81 51.39 29.51
Female literacy ratio () 32.02 18.82 3.00
Population per doctor 1,226 4,916 7,670
Population per bed in health institutions 1,341 1,594 2,179
Roads (per sq km) 0.26 0.13 0.17

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Broader socio-economic features

• 43 of FATA citizens have access to clean
  drinking water. The per-capita income is half the
  modest national figure of 500 a year.
• There is no banking system. The smuggling of
  opium, weapon trade and other contraband are
  common.

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Governance

• Created by the British to serve as a buffer
  between undivided India and Afghanistan.
• Special system of political administration to
  govern these tribes.
• Maximum autonomy
• Life under tribal code (Pushtunwali)

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Tribal Code Pushtunwali (cornerstone)

• melmastia (hospitality and protection to every
  guest)
• nanawati (the right of a fugitive to seek refuge,
  and acceptance of his bona fide offer of peace)
• badal (the right of blood feuds or revenge)
• tureh (bravery)
• sabat (steadfastness)
• imandari (righteousness)
• 'isteqamat (persistence)
• ghayrat (defense of property and honor)
• and namus (defense of one's women).

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Legal System

• National Laws are not extended
• The Pakistani courts and police have no
  jurisdiction in tribal areas.
• Universal Adult Franchise in 1997, political
  parties act is not extended
• Frontier Crimes Regulation

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Population by gender (FATA, 1998)
Total Male Female Ratio
FATA 3,176,331 1,652,047 1,524,284 108

• 126,577 persons, most of whom are likely to be
  men, are recorded as migrants from FATA in other
  parts of Pakistan during the 1998 census

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Women Status

• They are subject to physical segregation, forced
  immobility and economic exclusion.
• They are denied access to education and jobs,
• have no right to marry by choice,
• virtually no access to justice,
• enjoy little freedom of movement.
• Suffered honour crimes
• Compensation for murder (Swara)

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Legal Status of Women

• Muslim Family Laws are not applicable (no rights
  to termination of marriage and guardianship of
  the children).
• No right to inheritance
• Murdered with impunity, forensic evidence can not
  be collected.
• No participation in decision making processes
  (can not participate in jirga, the decision
  making assembly of male elders of the tribe).

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Womens Right to Education (if people are forced
to keep their daughters uneducated, the future is
certainly bleak. )

• Women literacy 1
• Infrastructure minimal
• Extremists have bombed hundreds of girls' schools
  and circulated violent threats warning girls to
  stay at home
• Dozens of female teachers have been killed.
• 180 community schools for girls set up with the
  assistance of the Norwegian government - have
  been closed

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Effects of terrorism on women and children

• Displacement
• Victims of landmines, landmine explosions are the
  main cause of childrens death in the tribal
  belt. Till the beginning of this year, 203
  children had been injured only in Bajaur Agency.
• Of the victims, 37 children were hit by
  landmines on their way to school while 28 were
  hit while passing through landmine strewn fields.
  
• Last year, 405 landmine related accidents took
  place in Kurram agency with a death toll of 157.

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Campaign against polio and universal vaccination
of children (a case study)

• Pakistan recorded 25,000 polio cases in 1994, 558
  in 1999, 28 in 2005 and the number of polio
  affected children was only 12 in 2006. In
  Pakistan, 85 of the districts are free of polio
  cases for almost three years whereas 60 of the
  cases in 2006 were restricted to only six
  districts.
• Efforts to immunise hundreds of thousands of
  children against polio in FATA and adjoining Swat
  valley were thwarted in early 2007. A 12-member
  polio vaccination team was taken hostage and
  subsequently released after severe torture.
• Justification US conspiracy to render people
  incapable of producing children.

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• In June, 2006, a petition was registered with the
  Peshawar High Court to stop polio vaccination.
  The petitioner cited some Nigerian source,
  alleging that Estrogen and Estradoil weaken the
  male reproductive system and accelerate puberty
  in females two most volatile concerns of the
  conservatives the world over. Interestingly,
  Pakistan is one of the only four nations where
  polio is still endemic others being India,
  Nigeria and Afghanistan.

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Minority within majorityShias case study

• The people of Kurram Agency have been suffering
  horrific sectarian violence at the hands of
  home-bred and foreign terrorists since early 2007
  
• In April 2007, around 55 people were killed
  during sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency of
  FATA as Shia and Sunni militants attacked each
  others village with heavy weapons.

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• The state of women, children and minorities in
  any community constitutes the yardstick to
  measure the sensitivity, vitality and prospects
  of the concerned polity community as a human
  collective. When it comes to vulnerable groups,
  numbers avails not. Neither does the volume or
  the scale of injustice make much of a difference
  because all forms of discrimination, abuse,
  neglect or injustice to such groups essentially
  define the character of the social contract
  without prejudice to the intensity or obscurity
  of the factual details.

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