In Pakistan's Swat Valley, Frustration Sets In

The lack of visible progress in Pakistan’s Swat valley a year after the military cleared the area of Taliban insurgents is feeding frustration among residents and foreign donors.

The government has yet to rehabilitate more than 150 schools leveled by insurgents in their bid to prevent girls from attaining education, while water, electricity and school supplies are still not provided.

Pakistani officials have blamed July’s monsoon flooding for delaying the hiring of engineers and architects for the reconstruction of schools. Foreign governments have also failed to complete their pledges, Pakistani authorities added.

“The issue of postmilitancy reconstruction ― not only schools, but enterprise, infrastructure ― somehow the whole international community has forgotten the issue, which we feel is perhaps, if not more important, than as important as floods,” said Shakeel Qadir, director general of the North-West Frontier Province’s Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority, as quoted by The New York Times.

Foreign donors fear that aid money will end up in the hands of corrupt politicians.

The U.S. has insisted on financial safeguards for its aid money, which Qadir says has delayed the region’s rehabilitation.

“Is making compromises on financial controls a smart thing?” Qadir asks. “Is winning or losing the hearts and minds of the people a smart thing? You cannot have the cake and eat it, too.”

The U.S. has so far provided USD5 million to help rebuild schools in the Swat valley and pledged to disburse an additional USD15 million depending on the transparency of using the initial funding and the progress attained.