Syeda Mazhar
The Swat Valley is an administrative district in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North-West Frontier Province or NWFP) that had become synonymous, in history, with protracted conflict between state forces and insurgent elements within the region. Pashtun tribes primarily inhabiting the Valley have strong ethnic connections to Pashtun and Islamic values that greatly influences the valley whilst celebrating their common language and the Pashtunwali code.
The code of conduct used in parallel with Sharia law, highlights, the Pashtunwali code has underpinned social, political and economic life in the Valley andprovided an alternative form of social organisation. Pashtunwali involves the principles of malmastia (hospitality), jirga, hujra, badal (revenge), nanawatee (refuge, asylum), ghairat (honour, chivalry), tor (shame), tarboorwali (agnatic rivalry), purdha and namoos (gender boundaries).
Known as the Switzerland of Asia, the region was, it seems, deliberately pushed into the hands of extremists who were not only financially nurtured but also backed, many say, by the powers that be. There is considerable evidence of this, especially in how Mullah Fazlullah, then head of the Swat Taliban, was allowed to air his venomous broadcasts to the people of the valley for many months.
During intrusion of Taliban in Swat, the social network system under Pukhtoonwali was already very weak and there was lack of trust among different ethnic and social groups in terms of cooperation, support and collective confronting. The non-conducting of a Qoomi Jirga to defy the valley against the militant and non-unity under one leadership are the examples of weak social network.
The motivations towards Islamic system, equal distribution of resources and establishment of
parallel centers (courts) by Taliban for decisions making on all types of civil and criminal cases, have provided opportunity to marginalized classes to support the militants’ network in anticipation to get their rights. Moreover, the militants challenged the government writ and informal institutions through kidnapping, torturing and brutal killing of innocent people particularly the security personal and local leaders. The banning of women from education and jobs reversed the progress made towards women equality and empowerment within pukhtoonwali.
All these consequences have left stern impacts on social, cultural and economic structure of society.
During 2007-2009, militancy conflict in Swat valley was at a peak, wherein the militants attacked and killed the security personal, civil society members, the local leaders, the elected representatives of district government but also destroyed government buildings particularly schools and hospitals. Nonetheless, the militant also targeted the informal institutions like Hujra’s (Guesthouses), Jirga (council of elders), and even Mosques, which are symbols of unity in Pukhtoon society. Further, they established their markaz as parallel courts against the government judicial system for deciding all kind of civil and criminal cases, and also challenged the local Jirga system which in past played an important role in resolution of conflict and maintaining peace in society. The militants occupied more than half of the Swat valley during 2007-2009, and delinked functioning of both government machinery and structure of the local cultural system.
After several attempts to resolve the conflict through negotiations but remained unsuccessful, the government of Pakistan launched a military operation named Operation Rah-e- Rast in May 2009 against the militants that caused internal displacement of more than 2,3 million people from Malakand Division including Swat World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The internally displaced persons of Swat lived in camps; established by government of Pakistan and Non-governmental organization, and in rented houses or with relatives in the districts of Mardan, Swabi, Charsada, Nowshera, and Peshawar, Islamabad and other part of country for a period of about six months. The IDPs suffered a numbers of cultural, economic, health, social protection and psychological complications during displacement period.
Pakistan’s military forces launched a campaign to regain control of Swat. The campaign succeeded, but the fighting displaced hundreds of thousands of people from Swat into nearby areas, creating a serious humanitarian crisis in the country’s northwestern region. A little more than a year later, as many of those internally displaced persons were returning to a newly stabilized Swat, the worst flooding in Pakistan’s history created a new crisis that threatened to undo what little progress on reconstruction the military or civilian governments had achieved. Even during that time, the Pakistan Army was at the forefront working towards the rehabilitation of the IDPs and regaining the control of the region.
The capacity of local governance officials to lead reconstruction efforts and improve service delivery in justice, education, and health may be constrained by the absence of a cohesive local governance framework however, despite that the inhabitants of Swat have been helped immensely by the army and have resumed their lives once again. While there have been some significant changes to the laws and institutions that provide justice in Swat, namely the implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, the formal judicial system has escaped much needed reform, which is why till the government is able to properly establish the judicial system, the Army would establish peace and ensure the stability of the Valley.
In a recent gesture, as a gift for the resilient people of Swat, an army Public School and College with a capacity of 3,600 students was established as the first project of the cantonment. While inaugurating the state of the art facility, COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa declared it as one of the best Army Public Schools in entire country.
The attempts to solve the principal drivers of the conflict in the Swat Valley have included military, humanitarian/developmental and legislative interventions. The Pakistan government’s response to the conflict has been the adoption of a three-pronged strategy based on dialogue, development, and deterrence. It entails deploying military force while also seeking to enhance development efforts and address persistent grievances.
With flourishing businesses and increasing tourism and the internationally famous ski resort of Malam Jabba, which had been destroyed by the TTP, been rebuilt and with the national ski championship events are now being regularly hosted. Now the expressways and schools being rebuilt and the gradual journey to development has been embarked on.
