ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is working with Iran on a joint-strategy to stem the flow of Islamist militants through their territory to and from Iraq, Pakistan’s senior most interior ministry official said yesterday.
“From Iran, they go to Iraq and then come back,” Rehman Malik, adviser to the prime minister on interior ministry affairs, told reporters after talks with his Iranian counterpart. “We are preparing a joint strategy to control it.”
Pakistan has come under intense pressure from Western allies that have troops in Afghanistan to stop Taliban and Al Qaeda militants from using sanctuaries in tribal areas along the border.
Pakistan, which itself is facing rising militancy at home, says it is committed to fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban militants but will not allow foreign troops to operate on its soil.
Malik said Iran, which is predominantly Shia Muslim, and Pakistan, mainly Sunni Muslim, had agreed to set up a joint commission of clerics to reduce sectarian strife in Pakistan.
“It will send a good message to Shia and Sunni brethren that they should stop cutting each other’s throats,” Malik said.
Thousands of people have been killed in sectarian attacks by militants from the two Muslim sects in Pakistan over the past three decades.
lPakistan has formed a committee of experts to look into possible amendments in Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) to streamline the tribal governance system.
The introduction and imposition of measures aimed at reforming and bringing the backward areas of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) at par with the other developed areas of the NWFP has always remained a low priority for the previous governments.
Though an evident change in the political, social and cultural life of these areas could have been taken as harbinger of revolution, the opportunity was lost during previous governments.
The FATA system requires prompt attention especially after the whole region is infested with militancy. The people living in FATA again have shown their strong reservations over the codes of governance established by the British.
Administratively, FATA is divided into seven political units namely Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber Orakzai, Kurram, North and South Waziristan Agencies and six Frontier Regions (FRs) Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan.
The last one is further divided into FR D I Khan and FR Tank. Similarly FR Bannu had been reconstituted into FR Bannu and FR Lakki Marwat. Before partition, various policies were adopted by the British government like the “Sanderman system, Close border policy, Butcher bolt system, policy of non-interference and forward policy”, as envisaged by various viceroys.
The last policy move was the introduction of the Indian Government Act of 1935. Special status was granted to these areas, which has been maintained in the Constitution of Pakistan.
The federal government controls all affairs of these areas and the governor acts as an special agent of the government.
New laws cannot be promulgated in these areas except those issued through ordinances and orders. Only through an amendment in the Constitution, an the status quo can be changed.–Agencies