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The areas that today make up
FATA were once part of the battleground on which the ‘Great Game’ of imperial
domination was played out in the 19th century. For the British colonial
administrators of India, effective control of the region was imperative for the
defence of their Indian possessions, serving as a bulwark against Russian
expansionism in Central Asia. It proved difficult, however, for the colonial
government to establish its writ in the tribal areas.
Colonial administrators
oversaw but never fully controlled the region through a combination of
British-appointed agents and local tribal elders. The people were free to govern
internal affairs according to tribal codes, while the colonial administration
held authority in what were known as ‘protected’ and ‘administered’ areas over
all matters related to the security of British India.
Although various tribes
cooperated with the British off and on in return for financial incentives (Abbas,
2006), this quid pro quo arrangement was never completely successful. Throughout
the latter half of the 19th century, British troops were embroiled in repeated
battles with various tribes in the area (Hunter et al., 1840–1900). Between 1871
and 1876, the colonial administration imposed a series of laws, the Frontier
Crimes Regulations, prescribing special procedures for the tribal areas,
distinct from the criminal and civil laws that were in force elsewhere in
British India. These regulations, which were based on the idea of collective
territorial responsibility and provided for dispute resolution to take place
through a jirga (council of elders), also proved to be inadequate.
Frustrated in their efforts
to subdue the region, the British in 1901 issued a new Frontier Crimes
Regulation that expanded the scope of earlier regulations and awarded wide
powers, including judicial authority, to administrative officials. In the same
year, a new administrative unit, the North-West Frontier Province, was created
by carving out parts of the then Punjab province and adding certain tribal
principalities. The province, as it was constituted at the time, included five
‘settled’ districts (Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara, Kohat and Peshawar) and
five tribal agencies (Dir-Swat-Chitral, Khyber, Kurram, North Waziristan and
South Waziristan), and was placed under the administrative authority of a chief
commissioner reporting to the Governor-General of India (Hunter et al.,
1840–1900).
The institution of the
‘political agent’ was created at this time. Each agency was administered by a
political agent who was vested with wide powers and provided funds to secure the
loyalties of influential elements in the area. It was also during this period
that the maliki system was developed to allow the colonial administration to
exercise control over the tribes. Under this system, local chiefs (maliks) were
designated as intermediaries between the members of individual tribes and the
colonial authorities, and assisted in the implementation of government policies
(GoP, undated [a]).
Despite these efforts,
bolstered by repeated military campaigns, the colonial administration retained
what was at best a tenuous hold on the area until the British quit
India
in 1947. Soon after Independence, the various tribes in the region entered into
an agreement with the government of Pakistan, pledging allegiance to the newly
created state. Some 30 instruments of accession were subsequently signed,
cementing this arrangement. To the tribal agencies of Khyber, Kurram, North
Waziristan and South Waziristan were later added Mohmand Agency (in 1951), and
Bajaur and Orakzai (in 1973).
Accession did not
subsume the political autonomy of the tribes. The instruments of accession,
signed in 1948, granted the tribal areas a special administrative status. Except
where strategic considerations dictated, the tribal areas were allowed to retain
their semi-autonomous status, exercising administrative authority based on
tribal codes and traditional institutions. This unique system, given varying
degrees of legal cover in each of the country’s earlier constitutions, was
crystallised in Pakistan’s Constitution of 1973.
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