Paakhair raaghalay. Welcome to FATA, Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. A few short miles from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s bustling metropolis, Peshawar, past many check-posts and security points, you enter a land where time seems to have stopped in the last century. Watch this 6-minute video introduction to the tribal areas on the Afghanistan border and find out what the people there really want in English, Urdu and Pashtu. Share the video to support their struggle for equal rights.

Governing law in the tribal areas is one that was made more than a hundred years ago. There are no official courts or independent justice system. FATA problems are interlinked with a lack of equal rights and protections. There is rising militancy and insecurity, and a lack of livelihood, education and healthcare opportunities.

There is an urgent need for government and collective citizen action to address the plight of a people not in some far corner of the globe, but right inside our own country. It is time to wake up to our responsibility as a nation and ensure that FATA is truly mainstreamed and is provided the same equal rights and opportunities as all Pakistanis.

For many years, 10 mainstream political parties, FATA lawyers, civil society activists and the people of FATA have been working to promote debate throughout Pakistan and call for political and legal reforms in the tribal areas. Reform recommendations call to amend the constitution to guarantee fundamental rights for the people of FATA, transfer legislative power from the President of Pakistan to the parliament, and implementation of a new local government system in FATA. The reforms also call for urgent action to extend media regulations to allow FATA voices to be heard and citizens access to media. Other demands are to clearly separate executive and judicial powers of the political agent and to make the Jirga system more democratic and independent. Such changes would go a long way to filling the political vacuum that has allowed militants to prosper.