The local leaders of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) have demanded of the government to grant Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) the status of a separate province so that problems of the tribal people could be resolved. They also asked the government to take the local people into confidence before making any changes in the system for the region, thus demanding democratic rights and representation. The administration of the tribal region is still dealt with by the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar. The the affairs of Khyber, Orakzai and South Waziristan agencies are controlled from their headquarters in Peshawar, Hangu and Tank respectively.
Another solution suggested is that FATA be merged into KPK. This is based on the idea that the demand for creating a sparsely populated tribal area into a separate province, given its commonality of language and culture the rest of KPK, is not justified on demographic and social grounds. Additionally, the concern is that political parties, such as JI, might use the demand to serve their vested political interests in the area, forcefully causing a new province to be created for future votes. While these are valid concerns, a sparse population is hardly an excuse not to create a new province. Compared to Sindh and Punjab, Balochistan is very sparsely populated, and increasing the area of KPK makes no sense administratively. The point of a new province is better political representation and ease of administration. While Pakhtun nationalists will support the merging of FATA and KPK, many tribal politicians remain adamant that the best way forward is to carve a separate province altogether.
Another solution is that a FATA council can be modelled after the Gilgit-Baltistan council. Thus an elected body of people from FATA should be able to decide its future rather than have it decided for them.
The Pakistan government remains under pressure to make special provisions to end underdevelopment, backwardness and violence in the tribal areas. Altering FATAs current administrative set-up, and making people feel that they are citizens of Pakistan on an equal standing with the rest may help curb militancy in the region. The people need a new social contract and a new economic and power structure. Militancy has caused irreparable damage to the old administrative and legal governing system. The demand for a new province will again open the debate on creating smaller provinces in the rest of the country. However, it seems the situation of the governance and security of FATA, Gligit-Baltistan and the rest of Kashmir is a more urgent problem to resolve.