MINGORA, July 11 The stalwarts of the ruling Awami National Party may speak about making the militancy-hit Swat a model district, but civil bureaucracy is yet to take charge of the area practically because of capacity constraints and lengthy procedures, leaving a vacuum for the army to fill.

As people in this otherwise volatile region are celebrating the first anniversary of victory against Taliban, the civil administration is still finding it difficult to effectively respond to their basic civic needs.

The government officials argue that they have little room to operate in the prevailing situation, where military is calling the shots even in the day to day affairs of the administration.

“Presently both the Malakand commissioner and Swat district coordination officer, being heads of civil administration, are abroad on an official trip, which somehow depicts where the civilian executives stand in the prevailing circumstances,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

The reconstruction of schools, roads, mosques, water supply scheme and even electrification of villages was done under the army's supervision in Swat instead of civil administration.

Pakistan Army mobilised resources from its own resources as well as the federal and provincial governments put funds at its disposal to undertake these critical nature reconstruction projects in the region.

According to Col Aftab, in charge Civil Military Liaison in Swat, army has initiated rehabilitation projects worth Rs1.080 billion in the conflict-hit areas of the region, of which Rs615.618 million has been spent, while almost 1002 projects are near completion.

Apart from rehabilitation of the civic amenities, he said, army had also helped the government in raising Community Police Force and Swat Levies to enhance capacity of the civilian armed forces to retain the area once the army withdrew from the area.

The army had completed projects within shortest possible time and comparatively at lower cost without compromising at quality, he claimed.

Justifying the role of army in rehabilitation, another military official argued that civil administration could work only in normal condition, whereas in case of Swat soon after the return of IDPs the entire infrastructure was collapsed and army had to respond.

“Every day thousands of people were returning to their hometowns and the civil administration did not have the capacity to cater to their needs so just to give it a jump start the army took the lead in rehabilitation projects,” said Col Bilal, in Barikot area of Swat.

“In a situation, when no private contractor is willing to come here, how the rehabilitation of services can be ensured unless military is involved in the process.”

He, however, clarified that civil administration and communities were taken on board in the entire process and the work was done through private contractors.

Officials in the civil administration conceded that the government's time consuming procedures and problems in governance were undermining their capabilities to effectively handle reconstruction activities. This creates room for the army's intervention.

Citing the example of education sector, the officials said that government received $5 million from the U.S government for reconstruction of schools some two months ago, but no work had so far been started because of the projects to be financed with the money were still in the tendering process.

On governance side, at the moment around 1,000 posts were vacant in education and the district was short of almost 30 medical officers, an official said.

The government, the official said, provided generators to 37 water supply schemes of Mingora TMA, but even then there was always shortage of water because the department didn't have much to spend on fuel.

Public opinion is divided over military's involvement in civilian affairs.

Ziaud Din Yousufzai, a social activist based in Mingora, advocates that civil administration should be given lead role in rehabilitation and reconstruction process because it lacks capacity that can be built within crisis time.

“What will happen, the moment army leaves the area, after all these are the civilians, who have to respond to the situation,” he said.

But at the same time there are many, who believe that army's intervention in restoration of services and rehabilitation has improved the situation in terms of service delivery.

Shah Mohammad, a resident of Madayan that is 56 kilometres north of Mingora, told this scribe that army was monitoring the attendance of teachers and doctors in the locality.

“I don't have the details but you can imagine that now the local hospital has started attending patients, who need surgeries, saving them from travelling to Mingora,” he added.

Afzal Khan Lala, a senior leader of Awami National Party, is comfortable with the army's role in rehabilitation process. “Apparently the situation has improved on ground, but in reality threats are very much there,” he said.

He claimed that 1973 Constitution empowered army to supervise the work of civilian department in any area where it was called in. Supporting the army role in reconstruction phase, Mr Lala said it was must for prompt execution of the projects.

“I think army has not progressed the way it should have during the last 60 years, but it is still an honest institution. I personally requested the chief of army staff to take over the task of reconstruction in Swat,” he added.