North West Frontier Province
In Pakistan, there are four letters that stir the blood of any romantic: NWFP. The North West Frontier Province is one of the planet's more exotic corners, a wild, mountainous region peopled by troublesome tribes who've refused to buckle under any authority other than their own. North West Frontier Province is a province of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, located on both banks of the river Indus and stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the deserts in the south where it is bordered by the Baluchistan and Punjab provinces. On its western flank is the rugged terrain of neighboring country Afghanistan, which is accessed via the historic Khyber Pass through the mountains of the Suleiman Range. Its borders touch or are close to those of China, the Tajikistan and the disputed territory of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the north. The capital of the province is the city of Peshawar.
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border, and certain areas within the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), are designated as tribal areas and are not subject to normal government jurisdiction. The Government of Pakistan requires all citizens of countries other than Pakistan and Afghanistan to obtain permission from the Home and Tribal Affairs Department prior to visiting these locations. The permit may stipulate that an armed escort must accompany the visitor. Even in the settled areas of the NWFP there is occasional ethnic, sectarian, and political violence. There have been dozens of bombings in Peshawar of varying sophistication since September 2006. Members of the Taliban and Al-Qaida are known to be in the FATA, and may also be in the settled areas.
Besides the seven FATA agencies there are some small tribal pockets called the Frontier Regions. These are administered by the district administration of the contiguous district. These include Frontier Region Peshawar, Frontier Region Kohat, Frontier Region Bannu, and Frontier Region Dera Ismail Kahn. Some tribal pockets are kept under the provincial administration as well. These are called the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas. For example Malakand Agency, which now is under the provincial administration. As Joshua T. White, wrote in November 2008 "While the neo-Taliban insurgency remains heavily dependent upon bases deep in the FATA, the movement’s center of gravity is gradually becoming more diffuse, blurring the distinction between settled and tribal regions. The NWFP has been rocked by a steep rise in militant activity over the last two years, and increasingly resembles the “ungoverned” tribal areas. Political reforms in the FATA, on the other hand, are likely to make the tribal areas look more like the settled regions by introducing regular forms of political activity. The religious parties’ five year tenure leading the NWFP government, from 2002 to 2007, represents a valuable case study of the ways in which involvement in the political process can serve to shape — and ultimately moderate — Islamic political behavior. Rather than serving as the vanguard of Taliban-like rule in the Frontier, as many observers had feared, the MMA instead became relatively pragmatic and found its Islamist agenda limited by both internal and external pressures. The lessons of the MMA’s transformation remain deeply relevant in the Frontier, even following the alliance’s defeat in February 2008. ... The MMA’s defeat in the February 2008 elections sparked optimism that secular nationalism would replace religious politics in the Frontier. The Awami National Party (ANP) took advantage of public disillusionment with the Islamists’ governance and with their inability or unwillingness to stem the rising tide of militancy."
The Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)-led provincial government, a coalition of six conservative parties that ruled in the NWFP until November 2007, passed directives and legislation in accordance with conservative Islamic views. If implemented, many of these initiatives would impose Shari'a on all citizens, regardless of religious affiliation. Existing laws include antiobscenity measures under which advertising was torn down, stores fined for selling certain western recordings, a complete ban on alcohol, and a requirement for civil servants to pray five times daily.
The government initiated a policy of dialogue after the 18 February 2008 general elections to resolve the conflict in the North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The consensus between the four coalition partners in NWFP -- PPP, ANP, JUI-F and PML-N -- was to continue talking with the militants and seek a political solution. ANP did not believe the time for peace talks it began in Swat was over. A permanent player in the province and under some real threat at the hands of militants, the liberal secular ANP was almost forced into taking this position. JUI-F, being ideologically close to the Taliban, did not for a moment believe in the other view -- the one that espouses military solution. The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand Division was part of the efforts of the Government to promote national reconciliation and three 'Ds' strategy to combat terrorism and extremism. But by August 2008 the policy of dialogue and use of force as a last resort was over.
North West Frontier Province covers an area of 74,521 sq. km. According to the 1998 census, the total population of NWFP was approximately 14 million out of whom 52% are males and 48% females. The density of population is 187 per sq. km and the intercensal change of population is of about 30 percent. Geographically the province could be divided into two zones: the northern one extending from the ranges of the Hindukush to the borders of Peshawar basin; and the southern one extending from Peshawar to the Derajat basin. The northern zone is cold and snowy in winters with heavy rainfall and pleasant summers with the exception of Peshawar basin which is hot in summer and cold in winter. It has moderate rainfall. The southern zone is raid with hot summers and relatively cold winters and scantly rainfall. Its climate varies from very cold (Chitral in the north) to very hot in places like D.I. Khan.
Its snow-capped peaks and lush green valleys of unusual beauty attract tourists and mountaineers from far and wide while its art and architecture no less known than the historic Khyber Pass. Once the cradle of Gandhara civilization, the area is now known for its devout Muslims who jealously guard their religion and culture and the way of life which they have been following for centuries.
British policy toward the tribal peoples on the northwest frontier vacillated between caution and adventurism during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Some viceroys opposed extending direct administration or defense beyond the Indus River. Others favored a more assertive posture, or "forward policy." The latter view prevailed, partly because Russian advances in Central Asia gave their arguments credence. In 1874 Sir Robert Sandeman was sent to improve British relations with the Baloch tribes and the khan of Kalat. In 1876 Sandeman concluded a treaty with the khan that brought his territories -- including Kharan, Makran, and Las Bela -- under British suzerainty.
The warlike Pukhtoons, who live in NWFP and the adjoining areas of Afghanistan, making them a race apart, a chosen people, and no one, has ever managed to subdue them. The Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs, British and Russians have suffered defeat at their hands. The Pukhtoons are divided into numerous sub-tribes and clans, each defending its territory and honor. In addition, the Pukhtoons serve as Pakistan's first line of defense along the Durand Line, the border drawn in 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand, then foreign secretary of British India.
The North-West Frontier Province, or NWFP, runs for over 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) along the border with Afghanistan. A historic gateway to South Asia and once heart of ancient Gandhara Kingdom - maintain a unique heritage. The legendry route from Peshawar to Kabul in Afghanistan is the feature of the province’s most widely known (and infused with romance) in the world beyond. In the days of Kushan kings the land was called Lotus Land. The classical Gandhara territory was the Peshawar valley including hilly areas of Swat, Dir extending to the east and beyond the Indus to Taxila. Rudyard Kipling had set his books in this land and one of his glamorous character is Murad Ali, "who came from that mysterious land beyond the passes of the north."
The region has been historically and strategically important due to passes leading into India (before partition), through which the invaders came from central Asia. Alexander the Great conquered the region 326 B.C., but his garrisons were unable to hold the region. In the early centuries A.D., Kanishka and his Kushan dynasty ruled the area. The Pukhtoons arrived in the 7th century, and by 10th century the conquerors from Afghanistan had made Islam the dominant religion of the region. In 12th century, Babar annexed it to his Mughal Empire, the region paid nominal allegiance to the Mughals in the 16th and 17th century. After Nadir Shah's invasion in 1738, it became a feudatory of the Afghan Durrani’s kingdom. The Sikhs later on held the area, which passed over to Great Britain in 1849. The British maintained large military forces and paid heavy subsidies to pacify the Pukhtoon resistance.
Britain separated the region from the Punjab of India in 1901 and constituted the North-West Frontier Province. From annexation till 1901 the Pathan frontier was under the control of the Punjab Government. Various schemes had been propounded for an alteration of this arrangement, with the double object of securing closer and more immediate control and supervision of the frontier by the Supreme Government, and of making such alterations in the personnel and duties of frontier officials as would tend to the establishment of improved relations between the local British representatives and the independent tribesmen. Of these schemes the most notable was that formulated by Lord Lytton in 1877, which was laid aside on the outbreak of the second Afghan War in the following year. The question was raised again, in consequence of the experiences of 1897; and after mature discussion and deliberation a scheme was formulated by which the Districts of Hazara, Peshawar, and Kohat, together with the Trans-Indus portions of Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, and the Political Agencies in the Khyber, the Kurram, the Tochi, and Wana were removed from the control of the Punjab Administration. To these areas was added the political charge of Dir, Swat, and Chitral, the Political Agent of which had never been subordinate to the Punjab. The new Province was constituted in 1901, under a Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor- General, with head-quarters at Peshawar, in direct communication with the Government of India in the Foreign Department.
The North-West Frontier Province differed from the older provinces of India in having been artificially built up out of part of a previous province together with new districts for a definite administrative purpose. The proposal to make the frontier districts into a separate province, administered by an officer of special experience, dates back to the viceroyalty of Lord Lytton, who, in a famous minute of the 22nd of April 1877, said: "I believe that our North-West Frontier presents at this moment a spectacle unique in the world; at least I know of no other spot where, after 25 years of peaceful occupation, a great civilized power has obtained so little influence over its semi-savage neighbours, and acquired so little knowledge of them, that the country within a day's ride of its most important garrison is an absolute terra incognita, and that there is absolutely no security for British life a mile or two beyond our border."
These people voted to join newly independent Pakistan in 1947. From 1955 to 1970 the North-West Frontier Province was a section of the consolidated province of West Pakistan. In 1970, the region was once again granted provincial status.
Pashtun / Pukhtoon
There are approximately 60 major Pashtun tribes, and more than 400 sub-clans. The Pashtuns in the tribal belt profit from trading, tracking, trucking and trafficking. Pakhtoon designates a person who speaks Pashto. Pathan is a Hindi term adopted for them by the British. The racial composition of the Pukhtoons is less than clear. The tribes who dwelled in the area in the days of the Greek historians are believed to be part of the great Aryan horde which had moved down from Central Asia a millennium earlier. Over the course of centuries, the Greek, Persian, Turk, and Mongol invaders who passed through the Frontier have added their blood.
Nearly one-third of the population of NWFP is non-Pakhtoon. In the tribal areas, they are called Hamsaya or Kadwal. In the border areas of Hazara and Derajat, social norms more closely resembling those in Punjab and Kashmir may be discerned. Clan groups remain important, but mainly as social networks, particularly for marriages. Chitral has a separate language and culture of its own; a visible difference crossing over from Dir is that the carrying of arms is uncommon. Most distinct are the indigenous Kalash, people now confined to three small valleys in Chitral. Their way of life is rooted in the worship of ancestral spirits and trees. Their unique customs attract a lot of attention from visitors. However, due to the conversions of the Kalash to Islam, their age-old traditions are rapidly becoming extinct.
Around 68 per cent of the households in NWFP are Pukhtu speaking, eighteen per cent are Hindko speaking while Seraiki is the mother tongue of four per cent. Around eight per cent of households speak local languages, such as Kohwar in Chitral district, while Urdu and Punjabi speaking migrants account for only two per cent of the households
The Pukhtoon society comprises both the people of the tribal areas and the settled districts of NWFP. The tribal society has been the focus of many studies as it has kept alive the true Pukhtoon ethos. The Pukhtoon of the settled districts have however been subject to external influence and have moderated some of the more traditional aspects of their culture and customs. The Yousafzai, Muhammadzai and Khalil tribes belong to the settled districts and have limited links in the tribal areas. All other Pukhtoon tribes of the settled districts have extensive affections and consanguninal ties with the tribal Pukhtoons.
The Pukhtoon society is individualistic despite the rigid behavior prescribed by clan membership. While Pashto speaking people constitute one cultural and social entity, Pukhtoon society is divided into tribes, based on genealogies. The tribes are sub-divided into Khels, which may be equated with clans. Within the Khels, the basic division is the expanded family group. The leader of each family group is called a Malik, and the most important of a group of Maliks is designated as the leading Malik of the Khel. The usual object of allegiance is the Malik, and in settled districts, a Khan. They gain their title by their ability to lead followers in public affairs. A Pukhtoon Malik is however no more than a first among equals, and acquires the status through personal merit and the ability to inspire fellow tribesmen. Primogeniture is not recognized, and leadership is accorded to the most capable.
The social structure in the settled districts has altered a great deal from the tribal order. The Khans have lost much of their original leadership role in the settled districts. Agriculture is a notable characteristic of the culture of both the settled and tribal areas. In the former, it is however more developed in terms of irrigation, cultivation of cash crops and utilization of modern technology. The literacy rate is higher in the settled districts, especially for women. The trend towards having nuclear rather than extended families is also more pronounced in the settled districts.
The Jirga is the Pukhtoon assembly in which all public and private affairs are settled. The Jirga, of which the Khan is the head, now contends with the state judiciary in the settled districts. Rules of the federal and provincial governments are enforced through state intervention. The decisions of the village Jirga in the districts have to be reinforced by the court of law if the law enforcement authorities have also registered the case. Unlike in the tribal areas, a legal permit is required for the manufacture and possession of arms and ammunition. The Hujra is traditionally a male club and social centre, which exists in every village of the tribal as well as settled areas. It is the focus of community opinions and actions. While Hujras exist in the villages of the settled districts as well, they have lost much of their functional importance.
Traditionally, the conduct of Pukhtoons was guided by a code of honor called the Pukhtunwali. The foremost commandment of the Pukhtunwali is Badal or revenge (revenge is a dish which tastes better cold, Pukhtoon proverb). The obligations to take revenge for wrong falls not only upon the man who has suffered it, but also upon his family and tribe. Insults and retaliation hence involve clans and perpetuate blood feuds. The most frequent causes of trouble are money, women and land (zar, zan, and zamin). In rare instance, feuds are terminated when the weaker party throws itself on the mercy of its enemy, called Nanawati or acceptance of a bonafide truce, when blood money may be accepted in lieu of revenge. The third component of Pukhtunwali is Melmastia, or hospitality towards a guest, stranger, or an enemy if he seeks it. A formal escort or assurance of safety to a guest or enemy is called Badragga. The Pukhtunwali provides for law and order in a harsh environment, and is still a strong force in the tribal areas.
