PESHAWAR: Three employees of the newly-established focal point for the Fata Reforms Implementation Unit are relaxing in their chairs inside a small office on the upper portion of two-storey building of the Civil Secretariat Fata. Except only one telephone set lying on the table, the room is empty, no files or other paraphernalia.

This newly-furnished office room houses the FRIU, which is part of the much-trumpeted political mainstreaming reforms plan, and has been assigned the task to get feedback of tribal people on the reforms plan.

Under the proposed Fata reforms, there will be a fullfledged directorate of transition and reforms in Peshawar to implement this gigantic programme in five years. The funny thing is that Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra was brought to inaugurate the toll-free telephone number.

The UNDP has provided assistance for the installation of tollfree telephone line, hiring of staff and renovation of the office. The toll-free telephone line was installed on Sept 20, while inauguration ceremony was held on Nov 9.

The event probably delayed due tothe governor`s engagements.

Sarcastically, the toll-free facility provided to the FRIU office seems either out of order or withdrawn.

`Sorry this service is not available,` the automatic machine replied when the said number was dialed on Nov 18 and 19.

The purpose of the installation of that number is to facilitate tribal people to call the FRIU for input about reforms to be introduced in the area. The unit`s staff will dispatch that to the Ministry of Safron for deliberation and that appropriate stuff will be incorporated in reforms package.

`A total of 34 statements of the people have been recorded since the installation of telephone line, said one of the employees.

`We note CNIC number and other particulars of every caller, he added.

Such cosmetic steps like installation of toll-free telephone line itself explains the will of the government about the `political mainstreaming` of Fata. And it does not make any difference because tribal people have been seeing such plans since 1976.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had constituted a six-member committee in Nov 2015 to propose a concrete way-forward for the Fata political mainstreaming. The committee headed by adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz spent almost nine months and prepared a 80-page report to the prime minister in August.

The committee visited every tribal agency to seek the opinion of local residents and held meetings with stakeholders in Peshawar and Islamabad. It seems that the committee`s report has been put on the back burner and like previous reform packages, the new package also hangs in the balance. After presentation of the report and subsequent debate on it in the National Assembly, there is no logic to seek suggestions of people through a `faulty` telephone line.

The proposal of Fata`s merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Sar taj Aziz`s report has become sticky point that stirred controversy among political parties as well as tribal elders.

The JUI-F and its likeminded tribal elders are not in favour of the merger. The Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, another coalition partner of the ruling PML-Nin the centre, has also rejected the committee`s report.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman says he has conveyed his reservations about the proposed reforms to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. One official says the FRIU has been set up to pacify Maulana Rehman.

On the other hand, the ANP, PTI and other major political parties have been demanding the merger of Fata with KP before the upcoming general elections. One member of the committee has proposed `Malakand model` for Fata, too, and suggested enforcement of Nizam-i-Adal.

The political elites of KP demand for the immediate merger of Fata with the province has raised eyebrows. Critics of the merger plan said without looking into the ground realities and developing required infrastructure, the proposed reforms would create more complications.

`The immediate merger will serve the interests of political elites and nothing will come tothe hands of tribal people,` said a retired officer, who held administrative positions in Fata.

He pointed out that the committee report suggested that the NFC make allocation of three per cent of the available resources in the federal divisible pool (Rs90 billion) on annual basis for the implementation of 10-year development plan in addition to the existing annual PSDP allocation of Rs21 billion.

`Actually, they have set their eyes on funds that will be diverted from Fata to their own constituencies,` he said.

The recommendations of the committee seem to be very ambitious and unrealistic keeping in view the FRIU and dilapidated condition of Civil Secretariat Fata and its attached bodies.

The secretariat has been become virtually dysfunctional due to unavailability of officers and essential staff members.

In some of the departments, one officer has been given two to three additional portfolios.

The sitting additional chief secretary has been given two additional assignments. The ACS has been given the additional charges of the Fata Development Authority and Polio Cell. He always shuttles between Peshawar and Islamabad for meetings. In his (ACS) absence, the secretariat wears a deserted look.

The administrative secretaries of other key departments don`t have the power of principal account officers. One deputy secretary has been given three additional charges. Various posts of administrative secretaries have been lying vacant for few months.

An official said more than a dozen requisitionshadbeensenttothefederalandprovincial governments for the deputation of eligible officers, but in vain.

He said instead of deputing qualified officers, the provincial government provided officials, who rose meteorically from clerical posts to the deputy secretaries` `This is only gup shup (empty talk) in the name of mainstreaming and reforms of tribal area,` said the official summarising the whole affairs in the tribal region.