Socio-economic impacts of North Waziristan Agency’s internally displaced persons on Lakki Marwat: 2014-2017

Abstract

The implications of the 9/11 incident affected the whole region, but unfortunately, Pakistan was at the most. Due to the NATO forces attacks, most militants migrated to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for the sake of refuge, which caused the growth of militancy and extremism in Pakistan. To cope with terrorism and stop the advancement of this evil, the government decided to launch operation Zarb-e-Azb as a last vengeance in North Waziristan Agency to evacuate citizens and then extinguish militants. Resultantly, around about 1 million IDP’s displaced to the adjacent areas, i.e., Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Karak etc., in the mid of June 2014. This research article focuses on IDPs hosted in Lakki Marwat and their socio-economic impact on the host community. The research is descriptive-exploratory based on a mixed study approach; data used in this research were collected from both primary & secondary sources. The people of the host community argue that IDPs create a number of socio-economic problems like a rise in prices, compromised quality of goods, shortage of houses, occupation of schools, increase in crime rate, security problems etc.