THERE has been much talk about humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, but we often look the other way when we are confronted by our own crises. Waziristan is one region that has been in the grip of issues that have been ignored by those who matter in the land.

Over the years, we have seen people speaking about the step-motherly treatment to the people of erstwhile federally-administered tribal areas (Fata). This includes bad treatment meted out to the residents at security checkposts not only in the big cities, but in their own villages.

However, it is also a fact that activists from tribal region and Balochistan talk about their issues without providing the government officials any data because of lack of solid information.

Education for the youth is crucial, but girls in South Waziristan do not have access to education. In our villages, there are primary schools for girls where teachers seldom come. And in places where there is any functioning school, it remains overcrowded.

There is no higher secondary school for girls in the entire Waziristan. According to the Annual Census Report for the Newly Merged Districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government, in South Waziristan, 74 schools have electricity, while 144 schools are without this basic facility.

Only 118 schools out of 218 have clean drinking water, 50 schools do not have boundary wall and 70 schools do not have toilet facility. There are just two higher secondary schools for boys in Waziristan that has a population of over 600,000, according to the KP Bureau of Statistics.

In Waziristan, there are 49 middle schools for boys, but just 21 such schools for girls, and five of them are non-functional and are being used for various purposes except what they were meant for.

The students’ dropout rate in class V is 75 per cent in Waziristan and 90pc in the Brittani area. When parents see that their children go to school and achieve nothing compared to the children of the affluent people who send their children to expensive private schools, they stop their children from attending government schools where teachers seldom come anyway.

The system of iawazi, a Pashto term, is on the rise in the region. Under the system, a part of the salary is given to some private person who goes to school as a replacement teacher instead of the actual teacher.

Monitoring teams are unable to ensure teachers’ presence in schools. On the other hand, the condition of the so-called colleges is worse. Only about 350 girl students, according to the KP government’s official data, study in these colleges because of lack of facilities.

Colleges are far away from the villages; most college teachers are relatives of influential personalities and politicians. Nobody dares ask them to come to college. Using unfair means to pass the examinations is considered a birth right.

Seminaries and private schools arrange selected people for conducting examinations and their related processes, while government schools urge the students to get marks by hook or crook so that the education department may not question the education standards and credibility of public-sector schools.

This is the story of the education department. I do not want to talk about the grim and awful state of affairs prevailing in the domains, among others, of forest, health and police departments. For instance, in my village, Ghowa Khawa, there is a ‘grand and huge’ building comprising two rooms. It is supposed to be a dispensary to provide medical help to the people. For the last many years, it has remained shuttered down except when it is opened for the friends of the local influential politicians who come here to spend some time during the summers.

The situation of district hospitals is pathetic where clerks, technicians, pharmacists and even dispensers have a wonderful time in the absence of doctors who remain busy running their own private clinics. The local politicians are apathetic and are least worried about the issues affecting the lives of the lesser mortals.

I hope one day the youth will stand up and demand what it is its right, and then things will change. Till that happens, we can only expect that those at the helm of affairs would do the needful even though we know that the expectation is rather baseless.

Fida Hussain Wazir
Dera Ismail Khan

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2022