In 2016, Pakistan introduced a five-year plan to repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and integrate the region into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. The political conflict between mashar (elders), who are advantaged by the law, and kashar (youth), who are disadvantaged by it, has been an obstacle to reform. This article also demonstrates that this conflict has been an endemic feature of the law since its establishment by British authorities in 1901.