The matriarch who saved thousands in KP floods

ADC Quratul Ain wielded a stick, a frown and a laugh to stop floods from turning people into fodder

A female Pakistani bureaucrat posted in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has made history by battling torrential rains and floods and leading a broad evacuation and relief effort along the banks of the Kabul River that flows across the district and had swollen to frightening levels during August.

Assistant Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Qurat-ul-Ain Wazir hails from South Waziristan, a conservative tribal region known for its entrenched patriarchal traditions, and which not very long ago served as the command-and-control centre of Islamist militants.

No one could have imagined that a skinny young woman from that region would ride in the back of trucks with an uncovered face, wade through knee-deep waters with a stick in hand, knocking at doors with that stick and asking inmates to evacuate, at times waving that stick in the air and shouting at those who resisted, warning them that the tide was rising and they will rue this chance. She was even seen walking into the males-only mosques to relay instructions on their loudspeakers to people on how to evacuate and where to find help.

In the end, say observers, she was successful in saving hundreds of lives in the Manakhel, Kashtipul, Nowshera Kalan and other areas of Nowhshera which were badly flooded.

And this is not the first time she has stood out in performing her duties with an exceptional level of competence. Many recall her leading sting operations in the Peshawar Cantonment area some years ago, when she was posted there as a District Magistrate. During those operations, she dismantled decades-old encroachments in such important commercial zones as Fawara Chowk, Gora Bazaar, Liaqat Street and the main Saddaar Road. No administrator before her had been able to do that, given the influence of the encroachers. I first met her in 2018, when she was a District Magistrate at Peshawar Cantonment. She told me then that she never thought she would be able to achieve all that she did, “but I said to myself, I can do anything that a man can do, and so let’s break the shackles.”

And that is what she ended up doing. Leading from the front, wearing her smart jogger shoes, Miss Wazir was able to recover not only hundreds of marlas of precious land belonging to Pakistan Railways, but also millions of rupees in property taxes from the landgrabbers.

She completed her early education from Bannu, and then moved to Peshawar where she graduated in law and also did her masters in political science from the University of Peshawar. “I wanted to be a lawyer, and a judge, but I ended up in the provincial management services. But I find it more challenging and daring, and so I love it,” she says.

Speaking about her flood operations, Miss Ain said: “We had a very high red-alert warning at night for Nowshera, and there were only a few hours to evacuate people to safety, so we had to react quickly. We had to mobilise the administrative machinery as well as the relief and health staff, and were running short of time. So, we had to use both; the verbal warnings and the stick.

“I activated my staff to start announcing evacuation, but some folks were reluctant to move, so I had to chip in and start making announcements from the mosque loudspeakers. The local ulema and prayer leaders helped me a lot, and I am thankful for their support. The difficult part was when in some areas the women were not ready to move, so I had to resort to stick-knocking their doors to convince them.”

She further said: “The local elders, the law enforcement agencies, the police and the army, all did a great job to evacuate women and children to safety. Otherwise, there would have been a huge loss of life. Though there have been considerable material losses, we did save a lot of precious lives, which I consider my real success and for which I am much thankful to Allah Almighty.”

On a lighter note, about the stick she wielded, she says, “it was a huge support to me personally when I wadded through mud and water, and it was also instrumental in persuading those who were initially not willing to evacuate.” She smiles. She says the armed forces jawans did a marvelous job in Pir Sabaq, moving stranded people to shelter houses set up in school buildings where health and district admiration provided them with food and medicines.

“It’s not over yet,” she says. “Flood waters are receding, but we have to focus on relief, food and medicines for the affected people, and once the calamity is over, to rehabilitate them back into their normal lives. It’s a huge task, but if you have the will, nothing is impossible.”