A new province of Malakand?

Calls to divide Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley into two administrative units have grown louder in recent days. Today, the valley, which was swept in 2007 by a militant insurgency, has a total population of three million with two seats in the national and seven in the provincial assembly.

Members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf insist that as the population grows the valley should be divided into an upper and lower district for more efficient service provision and other amenities. “This way people will have access to better resources,” says Dr. Haider Ali, a PTI leader and MPA, “It will help bring prosperity to Swat.”

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has already begun consultations with local leaders and has constituted a jirga to further debate the matter.

During one of the sessions, Muhammad Ali Shah, the district Nazim, called the move a conspiracy against the historical status of the valley. “If the government wants to sincerely address our problems, it should establish schools, hospitals and roads throughout the hilly terrain,” Shah told those present.

Swat remained an independent princely state till 1969, when it was lumped into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Other political leaders at the Jirga called for a verdict by the people.

Local traders and activists are also rallying against the proposal and are instead calling for the establishment of a new Malakand province.

The Malakand division, which is made up of Swat, Chitral and Dir, has over seven million people, combined, and eight national and 22 provincial constituencies. If dissection plans do succeed, a new tussle could ignite between the leaders of the Matta and Khwazakhela subdivision. Both are pushing for their areas to be declared the headquarters of Upper Swat. Since the division, they fear, could result in an uneven distributed of development projects, with the bulk going to the scenic areas of Swat, which pull in the most tourists.