Very few people know that at the time of creation of this country only 25 percent of former FATA was politically and physically accessible to people of other other areas of the country while 75 percent of it was off limits for outsiders who used to travel there with body guards. After 30 years that is by 1980s 75 percent of it became accessible and only 25 percent remained off limits and this was made possible by the former administrative system in vogue there which gyrated round the concept of collective tribal geographical and territorial responsibility under which the local tribal chieftains played a key role. FCR had been black balled by a section of tribesmen who were born and bred in Peshawar and had never even seen their villages. An impression was created by them that FCR was introduced by the erstwhile Brits and that it was a black law needing urgent its withdrawal whereas the fact of the matter was that it wasn’t the brainchild of the Brits. They had only codified the Riwaj of the tribal belt which had already existed for centuries. If internal law and order of the FATA was far better than that of the revenue districts of the country in the past it was only because of the system of collective tribal territorial responsibility . A survey carried out in 1983 had revealed that one day crime figures of a single police station of Bannu exceeded the crime figures of the entire adjoining North Waziristan of one year. FCR suited the genius of the tribesmen of FATA. Police stations have been set up in a trice in the tribal belt. The institution of Political Agent has been renamed as DC but it hasn’t improved the law and order of FATA a whit. Though it won’t be easy to put the clock back now as a lot of water has crossed down the Attock bridge since the old time tested system of administration in the FATA has been done away with but surely there is a need to revisit the new system that has replaced the old one and remove its kinks and knots that are hindering its smooth functioning.
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