AROUND a decade ago, with the Pakistani Taliban in the Malakand division in the ascendant and the state making shocking capitulations, there was a great deal of fear and uncertainty in Malakand and across the country.

When a military operation began in April 2009 in Lower Dir, soon after the infamous Nizam-i-Adl Regulation was passed, this newspaper stated in an editorial: “It can only be hoped that the operation in Dir is not a one-off move aimed at countering western criticism of Pakistani inaction. To be successful, it has to be part of a wider strategy of taking on the Taliban with all the force the military commands. Tribesmen who opposed the Taliban have been losing heart ever since the Swat deal.”

The following month, Operation Rah-i-Rast was formally launched in Swat. It proved to be a turning point in the fight against militancy.

Nine years on, the military has now handed back control of security in Lower and Upper Dir districts to the civilian apparatus.

The transfer is a welcome milestone in the incremental return to normality in the region.

It demonstrates that the military is keen to transfer management of security in the region back to civilian authorities and that the civilian authorities have re-developed the capabilities needed to govern and enforce the law.

There have been doubts about the capacity and willingness of civilians to take over security and administrative responsibilities in many militancy-hit regions where military operations have been carried out.

At times, there have also been questions asked of the military leadership’s willingness to create the circumstances necessary for a transfer to civilian control after counter-insurgency operations have been completed.

But quiet and diligent work outside the limelight appears to have paid off, and in Upper and Lower Dir a situation has been arrived at where direct control of security and law enforcement has been handed back to civilians.

It is to be hoped that civil and military coordination will be close and continuing in the Dir districts because the transition period could produce unexpected challenges.

Moreover, across the Malakand region, there will have to be a progressive handover back to the civilians, so lessons learned now and new systems created could be applied elsewhere.

In February, another milestone was achieved in Lower Dir as more than 1,000 women voted in re-polling in several local government councils, ending the decades-old deliberate disenfranchisement of women in the region.

The positive security and political changes in the region ought to be wholeheartedly supported by the provincial and federal tiers of government.

Post-conflict areas should not be allowed to simply return to their pre-conflict existence.

Bad policies and bad governance combined to make such areas vulnerable to militancy and extremism in the first place and the state owes it to the people of the affected regions to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2018