Colonial Governance System in Pakistan: A Case Study of South Waziristan, Newly Merged District

This paper discusses the former colonial governance system based on special set of laws known as Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in the erstwhile FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas, present-day Newly Merged Tribal Districts). The main purpose of the research is to provide an argument that the colonial governance structure was not the only cause for the widespread militancy in South Waziristan, part of the Newly Merged District. From in-depth interviews with different stakeholders and literature review, it is found out that the FCR with all its inherent faults was deemed successful in the administration of the North West Frontier and it was not responsible for the militancy in the tribal district of South Waziristan. Thus, the paper analyzes the old governance system prior to the spillover of militants and it reaches to the conclusion that the FCR proved to be an effective tool for the political administration of the border area of South Waziristan in both the colonial and post-colonial periods. The study emphases that mismanagement, corruption and incompetency of bureaucracy has led to the weakening of FCR, traditional institutions of dispute resolution and the indigenous leadership model thereby creating leadership vacuum which was in turn filled by the militants. The study has employed ethnographic based data collection techniques to reach the findings that old administrative structure is not responsible for the chaos and militancy in South Waziristan.