Title: Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
1Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Pakistan
- A socio-political treadmill for women, children
and minorities
2Demographic 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,
3Broader 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
4Broader 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.
5Governance
- 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)
6Tribal 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).
7Legal 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
8Population 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
9Women 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)
10Legal 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).
11Womens 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
12Effects 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.
13Campaign 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.
14- 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.
15Minority 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.
16- 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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