Chief Minister: Pakistan’s NWFP in a State of War

'FATA-Like' Conditions Developing, Governance Becoming Difficult

North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti warned today that his province is in a state of war, and that maintaining a government is “becoming difficult.”

In a briefing at the National School of Public Policy, Minister Hoti warned that the NWFP was seeing “FATA-like conditions” developing, referring to the virtually ungoverned Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

He reiterated his call from earlier in the week for President Asif Ali Zardari to declare the province a “war-affected region” and to provide what he described as “enormous funds” to combat the growing insurgency and the collapsing economy in the area.

The NWFP borders Afghanistan and the FATA, and its capital city of Peshawar has seen a massive influx of refugees from the violent tribal areas. A peace deal in the Malakand portion of NWFP has committed to increasing religious control, though last week that deal’s survival was put into doubt by the government’s slow action on pledges.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.