PESHAWAR, Oct 12: With the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) taking a decisive lead in the NWFP Assembly, the bureaucracy appears to be in a state of confusion about the way the future provincial government, led by the religious parties’ conglomerate, would handle the governance issues.

The religious parties’ electoral alliance won 48 seats out of the total 99 general seats of the NWFP Assembly involving a total strength of 124 members including 22 women members and three minorities members who would occupy the reserved seats.

Legal experts believed that the MMA would need the support of a few independently elected members or any of the political parties having representation in the provincial assembly to attain the simple majority required to form government in the province.

Out of the 48 members elected on the MMA tickets only two — Pir Mohammed of JI from PF-88 (Shangla-II) and Akram Khan Durani of JUI(F) from PF-70 (Bannu-I) — had been in the provincial assembly.

“With so many new faces belonging to a political force which does not have governance experience really plunges one into confusion as to how the government affairs would be run,” said a senior official of the provincial administration.

Similarly, of the 14 independently elected members of the provincial assembly, only Dr M. Saleem from PF-31 (Swabi-I) and Sardar Inayatullah Khan Gandapur from PF-66 (DI Khan-III) had been the members of the provincial assembly.

The development planners and finance managers of the provincial bureaucracy who talked to Dawn appeared to be in no position to comment on the way official business would be carried out by the team of provincial ministers to be inducted by the religious parties.

However, said a well placed official, a cursory look at the MMA’s 48 elected members to the NWFP Assembly, leaves one with little options to put in place a team of minister capable enough to properly handle the governance issues.

Though the religious parties’ members of the provincial assembly had been holding not-very-important portfolios in the past, this would be for the first time that they would be required to head the provincial ministries.

There is a big question mark in respect of who would be supervising the provincial ministries of health, education, finance, local government, irrigation/power and finance from among the MPAs elected on MMA tickets.

Over the years, the education and health sectors have become donor driven owing to heavy investment made in these sectors by the international agencies. How would the MMA government deal with the international agencies investing money in NWFP, also appeared to be a question none of the officers concerned of the provincial government could convincingly answer.

“They may need to be taught, especially, the most technical issues pertaining to provincial finances, development planning and issues related to donor-demand driven education and health sectors,” said a finance manager of the provincial establishment.

Several of the officers said that it would be a big mess, as far as the official business was concerned.

Not only that the MMA members, observed a political analyst, lacked experience, required to properly run the government affairs, their parties’ rigid stand on several important social and government issues may give a set back to the already limping development process in the province.

Some believed that the province was going to witness a clash of policies between the MMA-led provincial government and the ‘authoritative’ NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah.

Education department officials said that the governor’s policy of introducing co-education at the primary level may also suffer a blow in view of the rigid stand MMA’s component parties have on the issue.

Similarly, official quarters are also apprehensive about the MMA-led provincial government’s position on the measures that would need to be taken in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in fulfilment of Islamabad’s international commitment viz- a-viz war on terrorism.

Several other officers saw difficult days ahead for the chief secretary of the province - being responsible to implement the federal government’s instructions in Fata.

“What would be his future in a situation when the top bureaucrat of the province has to implement federal government’s instructions viz-a-viz operation in Fata, apparently not in consonance with the MMA’s position on war against terrorism,” said a bureaucrat.