First of all I want to say that reducing TTP to just two demands is quite an achievement. Wonder if not capitalize on it.
Let's check their two demands;
1. Reversal of FATA merger with KPK.
2. They won't lay down weapons and return as victorious.
Reversal of FATA merger with KPK
Before 1947
The British Raj attempted to control the population of the annexed tribal regions with the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which granted large amounts of power to local leaders along the North-West Frontier as part of the process of indirect rule.[5][6][7] Due to "the extremely harsh, inhuman and discriminatory provisions" contained within the FCR, the legislation came to be known as the "black law."[7]
After independence
The annexed areas continued to be governed through the Frontier Crimes Regulations after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, by the Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, and into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956.[11] Even in the 1970s travellers through the Khyber Pass, such as those taking the Hippie Trail, were warned to stay close to the road because the Pakistani government had no control over the adjacent lands.
But, in the 1950s, several jirgas
had decided to support Pakistan. It was the time to merge FATA but it didn't happen. That caused many issues and with the entry of the USA in Afghanistan, those issues surfaced more prominently.
In 2018, when there were echoes of having more administrative units, FATA was merged with KPK.
Hence there are two, I would say blunders. One, when there was time to merge FATA, we toed the line of British, maintained FCR and kept FATA at distance. And two, when there was time to make FATA a separate administrative unit, we merged it with KPK; I believe considering the needs of the USA in the neighborhood.
So there was no 'Pakistan' neither earlier nor now.
Laying down weapons
Weapons for the sake of weapons are only for the show off and more of a cultural thing for tribal areas:-
Even with the advent of globalization and economic development, studies show that Pashtunwali still holds importance for Pashtuns living in the tribal areas (Khayyam, Ullah, & Shah, 2018). Some of the major Pashtun cultural codes include Badal (revenge and reciprocity), Badragga (safe conduct), Hujrah (Pashtun common sitting place), Jirga (Pashtun tribal councils), Lashkar (militias), Melmastya (hospitality), Nanawatay (law of refuge/forgiveness), Nang (honor), and Tiga (truce), among others.
Johansen (1997) argues,
In characterizing the Pashtuns as subhuman savages, uncivilized brutes, and treacherous murderers, the British no doubt expressed negative stereotypes commonplace in British imperial thinking, overlooking both positive Pashtun qualities and the likely causes of the pervasive violence. (p. 57)
Such negative stereotypes and dichotomies toward the tribal Pashtuns in the colonial literature have been criticized by Charles Lindholm, who believes that such narratives were “a norm rather than an exception,” where the Pashtuns were viewed in binaries such as “brave and honourable” or “treacherous scoundrels” (Lindholm, 1980, p. 350). Moreover, excessive reliance on colonial literature for understanding the tribal Pashtuns has resulted in these tribes being lookup upon as conservative and inward (Zahab, 2016). In this regard, Malik (2016, p. 29) argues that it was a major “intellectual polarization” among the British colonial writers that perceived Pashtuns “having propensity for violence.” However, this “intellectual polarization” has existed, in some way,
even after the British Raj left the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
So carrying weapons is about keeping the culture alive and Pakistan as a state won't kill the culture of any of it's communities. Similarly if we take decisions being pure Pakistanis, we can have FATA in refined state as a region free from drugs and other illegal activities.
