FATA - Political Reforms and Development

[EjazR]

^^^That not all tribals are uncouth people like they are made out to be.

And they do want to be part of a democratic Pakistan and kept under British era FATA regulations ruled by Political agents. That they want to get rid of the idealistic "teachings/brainwashing" that were given to them during the Soviet-Afghan war and replaced with realistic and modern education instead.

And ofcourse, if you listened to the Physics professor, he has some unique invesntions that could really help the power shortage in Pakistan

 

[VrSoLdIeRs]

^^^That not all tribals are uncouth people like they are made out to be.

And they do want to be part of a democratic Pakistan and kept under British era FATA regulations ruled by Political agents. That they want to get rid of the idealistic "teachings/brainwashing" that were given to them during the Soviet-Afghan war and replaced with realistic and modern education instead.

And ofcourse, if you listened to the Physics professor, he has some unique invesntions that could really help the power shortage in Pakistan

right!!!! as for the afghan war thing it was hardly 30 seconds among the whole 38 mins vid. but every country has a foreign policy, it was right back then but we have nothing to do with that now... we have to move on!!!

 

[SparklingCrescent]

This might sound like an anti-Pakistani question , but really it isn't, I want to know more on this topic. How come, and why is FATA still being regulated by undemocratic laws today? Do people in FATA support FCR? Cant government abolish it? Why/ Why not? I encourage my smart Pakistani friends to answer please.

 

[SparklingCrescent]

Comman Guys... Answers Please...

 

[fatman17]

An agenda for change in Fata

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Rahimullah Yusufzai

So much is being said and written about the Federally Administered Tribal Areas nowadays that at times one feels it is being overdone. No other place in the world is attracting the kind of attention that Pakistan's tribal borderlands are. The place is variously referred to as lawless, ungoverned and the most dangerous place on earth. Many even believe it to be Al-Qaeda's headquarters.

However, most writings about Fata are of poor quality and even misleading. But the writers' understanding of the tribal people and their way of life is rudimentary. One reason for this could be lack of access to Fata, where the entry of foreigners is banned unless they possess a permit, which is hard to come by these days.

Some of this gap in knowledge about Fata could be filled if one were to read a recent paper by Owais Ahmed Ghani, the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Titled "The governance challenge in the Tribal Areas (Fata) and the North-West Frontier Province," it was published on Jan 30, when the province was still known as NWFP. The 16-page document explains the administrative structures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, focuses on the role of the governor and governance, and looks at the emerging contours of a new social contract in the tribal areas.

Having served as governor for more than two years during the most turbulent period in the history of the province, Owais Ghani has been witness to momentous happenings and is aware of the administrative weaknesses and multifaceted challenges that this region is facing due to the spillover of Afghan militancy into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata in the aftermath of the US invasion of Afghanistan and the consequent military operations by Pakistan's security forces. Owais Ghani, who earlier served as Balochistan's governor for four years and as provincial and federal minister, is a Pakhtun from the Kakar tribe and belongs to the family of freedom-fighter Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar. Since he is the man on the spot responsible for Fata's affairs, his views carry weight and should be debated at a time when many proposals are on the table for bringing about reforms in Fata.

Despite the constraints of his official position and his serving as the governor of a strategically important province in a political setup in which the ruling PPP and ANP have been trying to replace him with their own nominee, Owais Ghani has boldly highlighted certain facts, such as the major body blow that the political administration in Fata suffered when the army authorities started direct dealings with the militants and their tribal interlocutors. In the process, the political agent and the administration were sidelined and lost influence and credibility and the tribes and their "maliks," or chiefs whose power traditionally depended on state patronage, were unable to stand up to the heavily-armed and better organised militants.

While analysing the steady decay in the administration system in Pakistan and its inability to effectively respond to challenges of militancy, rising crime and economic problems, Governor Owais Ghani has accused both political and military rulers of ruthlessly employing as instruments such as officials' postings and transfers, recruitments and promotions without merit and lateral-entry inductions to control the bureaucracy. In his view, the periodic cleaning of stables, like the dismissal of 303 and 1,300 civil servants by past governments and the use of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for weeding out corrupt and incompetent officers subsequently took on the shape of witch-hunts and selective accountability and demoralised the civil service.

He is critical of Gen Pervez Musharraf's Devolution Programme 2001 because it was poorly advised and hastily worked out and de-motivating the bureaucracy, which became non-cooperative. The district nazims failed to deliver during law-and-order situations and abolition of the office of divisional commissioners, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militancy became a huge challenge, negatively impacted the administration whose role was to coordinate between the political agents of the tribal areas and the deputy commissioners of adjacent districts in matters of law and order and crime-control. In Owais Ghani's view, "devolution of government implies taking government to the doorsteps of the public and partnering with the public, but not necessarily placing the administration under the public's control!"

Governor Owais Ghani has highlighted several administrative anomalies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, including the fact that parliament has no jurisdiction in the tribal areas and yet the tribespeople have been granted representation in the National Assembly and the Senate, but not in the provincial assembly. He concedes that the capacity of "collective responsibility" of tribes under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) to ensure order and security in their areas has been severely weakened, the Khassadar policing system has proved hopelessly inadequate and the concept of "hamsaya" and "nanawati" as part of "riwaj," or tribal traditions, was exploited by the militants and criminals for seeking sanctuaries in Fata. All these fundamental weaknesses in the governance system need to be revisited as there was no going back to the pre-militancy status quo. However, Owais Ghani wants an incremental approach to reform in Fata since sweeping changes could cause problems. As was the case in Malakand Division where the princely states of Swat, Dir and Chitral were merged in 1969 with mainstream Pakistan without preparation and the result was poor governance leading to public disenchantment and eventually a full-blown insurgency.

Since January 2008, as part of the government's anti-militancy strategy, certain administrative changes have been made through restoration of divisional commissioners, the strengthening of the political agent's role and reform of the administration system in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata); these included the upgrading of Kala Dhaka into a district named Torghar.

However, more reforms are needed and the final status of Fata needs to be decided because there are diverse proposals for making it a separate province or merging it into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Owais Ghani's view, a two-province proposal is more logical and viable from the social, economic, geographic and administrative aspects by undertaking a north-south division of Fata.

He is also an advocate of the four-tier district setup being implemented in the Pata districts of Malakand Division to cope with the militancy. In fact, he would like the Malakand model to become the model for all of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He has also proposed upgrading the administration of the six Frontier Regions for eventual conversion into districts. He wants creation of the post of additional political agent (development), raising the Fata Levy Force as the main police force in tribal areas, establishing Agency Development Councils for enabling tribal parliamentarian and elders to formulate socio-economic development policies, and placing the Frontier Constabulary under the governor's command, as it was in the past.

Owais Ghani would like the political agent to always occupy centre-stage, make sure that the governor holds only a few tribal jirgas on special occasions so as not to weaken the standing of the political administration, and offer tenure security to officers serving in Fata. He believes the FCR isn't a draconian law as is widely alleged and would be happy if it undergoes some reforms by limiting scope of arrests under its collective responsibility clause, incorporating bail provisions and establishing an independent Fata Tribunal for appeals.

He is in favour of extending the Political Parties Act to Fata to enable new social leaders cutting across tribal and sectarian divides to emerge and undertaking vigorous development activities by creating urban centres, carrying out land settlement and reclamation, launching irrigation projects and setting up trade gateways to Afghanistan. He wants creation of "Sterr Malik" or a tribal chief of higher category to empower elders capable of supporting the state's efforts for re-establishing its writ.

Owais Ghani's proposals are comprehensive and properly argued. Some reflect the official line and would be opposed by democratic forces. A debate on his suggestions would be useful because deciding the future of Fata and other conflict areas has become everyone's concern, not only in Pakistan but also in many world capitals. An informed discussion would enable us to make correct decisions keeping in view the aspirations of the tribal people and Pakistan's interests.

The writer is resident editor of

The News in Peshawar. Email: rahim yusufzai@yahoo.com

 

[fatman17]

Fata: continuity or change?

Dr Maleeha Lodhi

The writer is a former envoy to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News.

An issue that should have been debated in parliament was the subject of an international conference – the status and future of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Reforms to integrate the tribal areas into the state system have yet to figure in a national debate or receive sustained attention from the country’s media.

But important stakeholders came together to discuss this at a conference last week at Wilton Park, which is affiliated to Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They included six people from Fata, including two elected representatives, serving and former Pakistani officials having experience in the tribal areas, UN and other diplomats, as well as Pakistani scholars and NGO activists.

The participants engaged in a rich discussion, as did spokesmen of the country’s major political parties, ably represented by Senators Mohammed Ishaq Dar, Raza Rabbani and Afrasiab Khattak.

The three-day conference on “Advancing policy implementation in Fata” ranged over security issues, Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, effectiveness of state governance, economic development, the international community’s role in stabilisation and most importantly, building a national consensus on Fata.

“Mainstreaming” dominated the discussions: what did it mean, how Fata’s residents envisioned this, what were their aspirations, and how reforms could be undertaken. There was no dispute over “economic mainstreaming,” with Fata parliamentarians calling for fast-track development, identifying the services they wanted and urging consultation with the people to determine their priorities.

But opinion divided sharply on political, legal and administrative reforms. Apart from the divergence between upholders of the status quo and those calling for change, there was disagreement among the “reformers” on the pace, scope and modalities of integrating Fata. Some proposed an incremental or gradualist approach to political assimilation, emphasising the imperative to create an enabling environment for reforms. Others pressed for bold steps predicated on the view that the status quo was no longer tenable as the tribal, legal and administrative structures had already been transformed by the impact of geo-strategic and economic developments.

Fata’s present state of crisis offered an opportunity for reform. But everyone concurred that this needed a national dialogue to build consensus for constitutional change. Barring some discordant voices, there was agreement that mainstreaming had to begin by giving Fata a distinct juridical and constitutional personality. This was the only viable way to ensure the state’s effectiveness and responsiveness to the needs of Fata’s people.

Many of these points are supported by the findings of an opinion poll conducted in the tribal areas that was shared at the conference.

Carried out earlier this year by the Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), this found that on the question of becoming a political unit of Pakistan, a third of the respondents wanted full integration into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while around a quarter wanted a separate province. Only 7.9 per cent wanted things to remain as they are.

The survey data showed a widespread yearning for change from the longstanding administrative and regulatory system to another, but yet to be defined, arrangement consistent with the governance available to other Pakistanis.

A significant shift in opinion related to support for military operations against militants. This went up substantially in 2010: 66.8 per cent compared to only 16.8 per cent in 2009.

The implementation of reforms for Fata announced by the government in August 2009 was hotly debated. Few disagreed on the need to extend the Political Parties Act, amend the Frontier Crimes Regulation (two elements of the reform package) and introduce local government institutions, the confluence of which could provide an impetus for change from within.

One speaker proposed securing the “low-hanging fruit” by first piloting these reforms in Pata (Provincially Administered Tribal Areas), integrating them with KP and merging the Frontier Regions into KP.

Others called for a resolution in parliament to endorse the Fata reform package and help its expeditious enforcement. The president has yet to sign off on the package, having made the announcement without adequate preparation, consultation or building an internal consensus.

Discussion of the FCR often produced as much heat as light. Sceptics of change were challenged by others who pointed to the need to demythologise the regulations’ presumed past benefits to justify continuance of the status quo. They described this as a colonial vestige that was inconsistent with the changes proceeding apace, as indeed modern statehood. The FCR’s old premise that the tribes could provide for their own security no longer held. Resistance to reform, said one participant, came not so much from the tribes but from officials who prefer to rule Fata like a “fiefdom.”

This directed the debate to a consideration of the history of official treatment of Fata as a “strategic space,” rather than as a region where people have rights. A former military official put it starkly: for too long Fata had either been a “backyard” or a “playground” for the Great Game. The time had now come when primacy had to be given to the people of Fata and a “sure-footed evolutionary” approach evolved to assimilate it with the rest of the country.

From Fata’s own representatives came a litany of complaints about not being consulted on decisions affecting their future. The country’s political leaders had never even bothered to visit their region. “A century of neglect” is how a speaker described Fata’s isolation and marginalisation. This narrative echoed through the proceedings, underscoring the need to establish a sustained framework to ascertain and accommodate the sentiments of the residents.

The emphasis Fata representatives placed on the need for the state to provide education, including for girls, was endorsed by all present.
Education was identified as the priority for development spending.

When confronted with the issue of female participation, the parliamentarians themselves called for reserved seats for women from Fata in the National Assembly and Senate.

Attention was also focused on the youth bulge and the demographic shifts taking place in Fata and the need to address this by rapid development projects and generating job opportunities. But avenues for youth voices were absent in Fata.

There was considerable agreement that Fata’s security problems could not be solved in isolation to developments in Afghanistan. But a consensus also emerged that while the security challenge was the most pressing, addressing development issues and Fata’s mainstreaming should not be sequential to the restoration of law and order. Security and development needed to be tackled simultaneously through an integrated policy approach so that the two were mutually reinforcing.

For all the disagreements on the content and scope of reforms, Pakistani participants had a uniform response to a slew of questions about when and whether their authorities would launch a military operation in North Waziristan. The unified position was that this was a sovereign issue which should not be the subject of an international conference. Nor should the issue of Fata reforms be “internationalised.” These must be indigenous, based on consultation with the people of the region, politically-owned and publicly supported.

Speakers from Pakistan also closed ranks on US drone-launched missile attacks in the tribal areas. In addition to their legal and moral dimensions and “sovereign” implications for Pakistan, these were counter-functional because they provoked hostility from the tribes, inflamed anti-American sentiment, radicalised more people than the terrorists they eliminated and resulted in unacceptable collateral damage, despite claims to the country.

The CAMP survey’s findings amply reflect this sentiment in the tribal areas. Close to 60 per cent of the respondents believed these attacks are “never justified,” with variation across the agencies – 99.3 per cent holding this opinion in North Waziristan.

The conference deliberations helped to set out policy options and offer varying approaches to reforms. But only a national debate can turn these into concrete and workable solutions with the consent of the people of Fata. Finding ways to ascertain their wishes and translating them into enforceable policy should be the responsibility of Pakistan’s leaders not the donor community.

 

[S-2]

I can't think of a single internal issue that's more important to Pakistan than FATA integration. We've periodically discussed it here but only in the most ephermeal and shallow manner. It is not, however, simply a regional issue undeserving of the full attention of the nat'l polity but one that will, IMV, define the future of Pakistan as well as significantly impacting evolving relations with Afghanistan.

It's nice that a discussion was held in London. Wrong place, though. However, not the wrong time. High time this discussion be conducted daily in every corner of Pakistan. It effects every Pakistani.

 

[Aslan]

Hi S-2 welcome back. Its been a long time since your last post.

 

[GUNNER]

Nice read. Thank you for sharing Sir fatman.

I do agree that the status quo regarding the status of FATA needs to be changed. Recent events have highlighted the neglect of these areas and we have paid for it.

It's nice that a discussion was held in London. Wrong place, though. However, not the wrong time. High time this discussion be conducted daily in every corner of Pakistan. It effects every Pakistani.

There have been debates on that issue on several forums including the Parliament. The ruling party in KPK, the ANP, has been very vocal on the issue that it wants integration of FATA in the province.

However, every time the issue dies down for some unknown reason and crops up after some time. I am not sure what is the view of the military on this because this will have the final bearing on any decision.

 

[Muhammad-Bin-Qasim]

We have been screaming for change in FATA ever since I was a child... There are huge problems there... The thing is that people have discussed change and even agreed but there are vested interest groups there... I remember many years ago there was talk of building a road to Khyber Agency but one of the sub tribes Qanbar thought this would disturb their hash business and started fighting with the elder Malik Deen tribe over it... This resistance will stay for as long as the government does not have concrete plans to educate, provide health care and jobs to the people in FATA... otherwise they will resist all plans for change...

I think the government should declare all hashish production legal and setup industry in the area for making anti emetic medication out of the hashish... that could generate a lot of revenue, keep the farmers busy and provide jobs too...

 

[sparklingway]

Govt plans to absorb, bifurcate tribal areas​

PESHAWAR: The federal government has devised a comprehensive plan to restore peace after the completion of military operations in the tribal regions and adjoining Frontier Regions.

The plan includes proposals like administratively bifurcating the tribal areas into northern and southern parts, gradually converting them into protected areas, creating a garrison in every tribal agency headquarters, maintenance of over a century-old Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) with some amendments, setting up of Azad Fata Appellate Tribunal, extending of the Political Parties Act to Fata, confining Frontier Corps to just border security and establishing a new Fata Levies Force to replace it and placing selected frontier regions under the control of an additional commissioner.

The plan was prepared after consultation with the governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and other relevant institutions.

Another proposal calls for granting tribal areas the status of a province, instead of absorbing them into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The plan, which aims to establish law and order and promote economic and social activities, suggests that every tribal agency should gradually be transformed into a protected area, resulting in improved control of the political administration. Political agents will be tasked to seek the opinion of local tribes. Such protected areas have already been set up in Ghalnai Bazar and Mian Mandi areas of the Mohmand Agency.

The plan calls for amending FCR in line with the suggestions of Justice Ajmal Mian’s Report. This will reduce the rate of arrests under the common responsibility clause, reform the bail system and establish an Azad Fata Tribunal, enabling tribesmen to file appeals.

The Political Parties Act will be extended to Fata so that tribal and religious issues could be controlled. It will also facilitate the emergence of new leadership in Fata.

The plan also envisages amalgamation of selected Frontier Regions, gradually bringing them under the control of an additional commissioner so that the unit could be annexed gradually into a settled district. Of the protected areas from Malakand, Sakhakot tehsil will be absorbed in Mardan and Ranizai into Lower Dir districts.

The government has suggested setting up of civic centres at the tribal agency headquarter level where housing facilities on the order of townships can be provided. These townships should have schools, hospitals, colleges, parks and shopping centres as this arrangement will be able to convince doctors and teachers to serve in tribal areas.

The plan calls for setting up cantonments in tribal areas, with 25 to 30 kilometres left around them for agricultural activities.

It also calls for limiting the role of Frontier Corps to checking militancy in tribal areas and securing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan and creation of a new Levy Force for replacing the FC. The new force should take up the responsibility of policing under the control of political agents. The Khasadar force should be turned into community police.

Trade gateways will be set up in all tribal agencies on the pattern of Torkham in the Khyber Agency, providing communications, customs and immigration facilities to boost economic activities.

Land settlements in Fata will be created and small dams constructed. Traditional systems of maliks will be promoted so that the state could get their support in maintaining law and order.

Tribal customs like nanawatay and the neighbourhood system will be implemented but application of local customs will be restricted to tribesmen and not applied to foreigners, criminals, anti-state people and people living in settled areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2010.

Govt plans to absorb, bifurcate tribal areas – The Express Tribune

 

[muse]

While these reforms are most welcome, that is to say the peoples living there must have full citizenship, must get govt services, must be integrated in the econmy of the country, PK must be allowed to shallow up the FATA, it is a recipe for problems down the line -- successful administration and genuine democracy is best effected in a small scale.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA​

By Iqbal Khattak
For CentralAsiaOnline.com
2010-12-28

Members of the Tribal Students Union and civil society demonstrate outside the University of Peshawar in June 2010 to demand democratisation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. [Iqbal Khattak]

PESHAWAR – To empower the people in the militancy-plagued Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the federal government has approved municipal committees (MCs) in 14 planned urban hubs.

The move is part of a military and political strategy to defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban by socially transforming the region, and recognition that the militancy has changed the region.

Officials plan to create MCs in Ghalanai (Mohmand Agency), Landikotal (Khyber Agency), Kalaya and Ghiljo (Orakzai Agency), Para Chinar and Sadda (Kurram Agency), Miranshah and Mir Ali (North Waziristan), Wana and Sarwakai (South Waziristan), Dara Adamkhel (Frontier Region Kohat), Jandola (Frontier Region Tank) and Darazinda (Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan). The MCs hope to empower local citizens to make decisions on “standardising” life and services.

Khar, Landikotal and Wana will be the first to commission committees because officials consider the three towns more secure than the others.

The move comes after the government approved creation of urban centres in all seven tribal districts in a bid to urbanise and transform the districts.

“It is all about participatory governance under which the tribal people will bring themselves to certain codes and they will gradually adopt urban life,” Abid Majeed, secretary of the Administration and Coordination Department at the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar, told Central Asia Online.

The package includes extension of the Political Parties Act and the reach of the country’s laws to the areas in order to deny open space to extremist voices.

A November 25 notification announced that the Directorate of Local Government “shall frame detailed bylaws for MCs including bylaws on financial and administrative management, enterprise development and market regulation, building codes, legality and penalties and other allied matters.”

In the old system, the federal government gave tribal elders privileges in exchange for loyalty to Islamabad. However, insurgents have killed more than 500 pro-government elders.

The government appears to have decided that the militancy has irreparably damaged the ancient tribal governance system and that the tribes need to adopt modern concepts of rights and responsibilities and check and balances after the army has defeated the militancy.

“The old governance mechanism will no longer work after what the militancy has done to these areas and people,” a senior government official told Central Asia Online, requesting anonymity because he lacked authorisation to discuss the matter.

The government has considered administrative reform of FATA before. Para Chinar, Miranshah and Sadda had self-governance committees in 1961, 1968 and 1990, respectively. However, these were “loose structures.”

Back in 2000, the highest levels of government approved comprehensive reforms for the tribal areas. But the militancy struck, forcing a delay.

In 2005, the government experimented with letting tribes make decisions concerning their lives. However, that programme’s goals went unachieved. “The 2005 experience failed because no authority was granted to these selected and elected councillors,” former councillor Israr Kokikhel from Jamrud town of Khyber Agency told Central Asia Online.

This time, however, MC members will have both authority and responsibility, Abid said. Unlike 2005, they will elect a chair directly. Officials envision a six-member elected MC, plus one additional member each representing the peasant-worker and trader-merchant segments.

They also plan to have the FATA Secretariat nominate four tribal elders for each MC and have government officials sit ex officio on the MCs.

All members except the ex-officio ones will serve three-year terms. In a sharp break from the past, women will be able to join the MCs. Women’s rights activists welcome this move to let women speak for themselves for the first time in tribal society.

Authorities plan to let MCs make decisions on urban development plans, land use, municipal law enforcement, municipal budgets, tax collection, municipal services and other governmental concerns.

But authorities want to tend to certain matters before the MCs can begin work.

Elections to the MCs will “proceed (after) requisite activities such as demarcation of land for urban centres and establishment official facilities,” Muhammad Zahoor, director for Local Government and Rural Development at the FATA Secretariat, told Central Asia Online.

“Although election is the foremost priority, the aforementioned components need to be in place to facilitate the electoral process,” he added, making it appear the government is not rushing to form the MCs before security forces clean out former militant strongholds.

The tribal areas will benefit from the formation of MCs, provided the members indeed have authority, predicted former federal minister Malik Waris Khan of the Pakistan People’s Party from Khyber Agency. “I think participatory governance will bring development to the tribal areas and help people transform,” he told Central Asia Online.

Pakistan hopes to democratise FATA

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Threads related to FATA political reforms merged.

Also edited the first post to include a basic history of FATA, especially with regards to the accession of FATA to Pakistan.

Made thread a sticky, so all news related to FATA political reform and development should go here.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Truce ends blood feud in Pakistan that has killed 3,000​

Tom Hussain

Last Updated: Jan 21, 2011

ISLAMABAD // Tribesmen in a Pakistani region wracked by sectarian violence fuelled by al Qa'eda have agreed to end a four-year blood feud, politicians said.

More than 3,000 people have died in the Kurram area since 2007, after an influx of militants from nearby tribal regions sparked fighting between Shiite and Sunni tribes.

Kurram is one of seven tribal regions of Pakistan bordering eastern Afghanistan, known collectively as the Fata.

Pakistani politicians involved in talks by a 100-member "grand jirga", or council of elders, drawn equally from the rival tribes and their allies, said the agreement was reached in Parachinar on Monday.

"The people of Kurram have been waiting for the restoration of peace for years, and would soon live like brothers again," Malik Waris Khan Afridi, a former minister, told reporters in the region's capital, Parachinar.

The conflict started in 2006 when militants arriving from other tribal areas carried out attacks on Shiites. The situation deteriorated in 2007, when Sunnis blocked a key road in Kurram and Shiites expelled Sunnis from Parachinar.

The peace agreement came amid reports by the Pakistani media that the Haqqani Network, a potent Afghan militant faction based in North Waziristan, had brokered the deal in return for a new safe haven and right of passage into Afghanistan.

The politicians dismissed the reports as "propaganda".

"There is nothing like that. More than 1,200 of our [Shiite] people have been martyred. It is out of the question that we would allow a single Talib any access," Sajid Hussain Turi, who represents Kurram in Pakistan's parliament, told The National.

The politicians said the terms of the agreement would be made public "within days".

Reports in the US and Pakistani media had claimed that the Haqqani Network had become involved in the negotiations in September.

They said Ibrahim and Khalil Haqqani, sons of the network's ailing leader, Jalal-ud-Din Haqqani, had participated in two rounds of talks in September, held in Peshawar.

They also participated at a 10-day session of the 100-member tribal council in Islamabad in December, the reports had said.

The Fata Research Centre, an independent think tank based in Islamabad, said reports of the Haqqanis' involvement had been privately confirmed by members of the tribal council.

It said a scheduled December 25 meeting of the grand jirga, which had been expected to prove decisive, had not materialised because Khalil Haqqani was supposedly not available.

Jirga members were informed that Mr Haqqani was spending Christmas in London, it said.

The militant brothers hosted a delegation of Pakistani politicians, led by Malik Waris Khan Afridi, a former minister, in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan, on January 3, it said.

The Haqqani Network's bases in North Waziristan, from where it launches attacks against Afghan and US-led Nato forces, are a bone of contention between Pakistan and the United States.

Barack Obama, the US president, in an October report to the Congress, described North Waziristan as the global "epicentre of terrorism".

Washington frequently pressures Islamabad to launch a military operation against the militants there.

The Pakistani government has promised action, but has refused to commit on the timing, saying its military can't launch a new campaign while it is conducting counterterrorist actions in other parts of the Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

It has also been reluctant to act against the Haqqani Network because of a strategic relationship that dates back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, analysts said.

In return for being permitted to operate freely in the Fata, the network has occasionally acted as an arbitrator between Pakistani militants and the government, they said.

According to Pakistani media reports, the Haqqani Network's commander in North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, has played peacemaker after recent clashes between militant groups and security forces.

Pakistan intelligence sources have said limited, targeted, military operations in North Waziristan are likely by the summer.

That has prompted the Haqqani Network to look for an alternative safe haven in the Fata, the analysts said.

They said Kurram was the network's preferred destination, because it offered the opportunity to spread its operations in Afghanistan northwards to the province of Nangarhar.

"The Bodki-Kharlachi [border] crossing is what the Haqqanis want. If they get it, that would be a great success, because it would put them within 60km of Kabul," said Ashraf Ali, president of the Fata Research Centre.

However, he agreed any such arrangement would not be possible unless the predominantly Shiite Bangash and Turi tribes residing in border areas agreed.

Mr Turi, the parliamentary representative for Kurram, said the success of the agreement, which restates the terms of a 2008 deal, depended on the support of the government and military.

A key expectation of the Shiite tribes is the reopening of the Parachinar-Thall road, the region's only paved link to the Pakistani hinterland, he said. The road has been blockaded since 2007 by Sunni tribesman, allied with militants.

The alliance has been broken by the progress in negotiations, sparking clashes that have killed more than 100 militants, including two prominent commanders.

Mr Turi said the opening of the road would allow the fulfilment of the Shiite tribes' other major condition - the safe return of tens of thousands of people displaced by the violence in Kurram.

thussain@thenational.ae

Full: Truce ends blood feud in Pakistan that has killed 3,000 - The National