Pashtun long march: Why Pak govt must heed voices of these young men

The civil rights movements provides an opportunity to pursue the mainstreaming of the troubled FATA region in a democratic fashion with the involvement of its people

Gone are the days of colonialism, yet we see its remnants to this day. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) is such a space that was either eulogised for the ‘free spirit’ of our valiant tribesmen or abused as a lawless region. It came to be the epicentre of terrorist structures, which were rooted out by our valiant armed forces. As we slowly, lopsidedly and coercively move towards the ‘mainstreaming’ of FATA from outside and over the heads of its people, the death [of a young Pashtun man] Naqibullah Mehsud in a fake police-encounter [in Karachi] provoked our besieged tribal