Sources of Income

The Pukhtoons are chiefly employed in agriculture but their agricultural pursuits are limited owing to the lack of culturable land. The patches of cultivable land in hilly tracts and some open valleys do not produce sufficient food-grains to meet their food requirements. In addition to tilling the available land, tribesmen tend cattle, including herds of goats and sheep, camels and cows.

If, on the one hand, the tribesmen were economically dependent on the British, on the other, all kinds of trade in tribal areas had been monopolized by Hindus and Sikhs. They had opened shops in the centrally located places and big villages and every tribesman was their customer. A large number of tribesmen would go to Bombay in search of employment while others would join the Border Military Police (later called the Frontier Constabulary) and the army. Certain sections of the tribesmen would sell firewood and timber to the people of the cities, while others took up some other petty trade. But among the tribesmen, the Adam Khel Afridis of the Kohat Pass had a flare for trade. They were traders and carriers of salt at the time of the advent of the British in the frontier. They used to carry salt from the mines of Kohat District to Swat, Bajaur and other parts of the NWFP.

They also engaged themselves in a thriving and lucrative arms trade and later started manufacturing fire-arms in their factories. Other tribesmen emulated their example and set up arms factories at Illam Gudar (Khyber Agency), Nawagai (Bajaur Agency) and Kaniguram (South Waziristan Agency). The Adam Khel Afridis of the Kohat Pass showed the most extraordinary ingenuity in devising, making and installing different kinds of indigenous machines for turning out various component parts of rifles. In the beginning of the 20th century there were about half a dozen workshops in Darra but later this industry rapidly expanded to every glen and village. They were also famous gun runners and carried on arms trade with the Persian Gulf countries. In this way they supplemented the arms pile of the tribesmen and furnished them with the latest weapons at reasonable rates. At present the Adam Khel Afridis are producing such fine specimen of revolvers, pistols and rifles with their crude implements that they can hardly be distinguished from those of European-make. It can be confidently said that nowhere in the world has a similar feat been performed by un-educated men with no training or experience of mass production methods.

The arms manufacturing industry was the main source of the Afridis' income during the British rule. But conditions have changed considerably since the creation of Pakistan. The increased interest of the national Government in the welfare of the tribesmen and the growing communication and interaction between the tribesmen and the people of other parts of Pakistan, have revolutionized their socio-economic life. Soon after Independence the Pakistan Government launched a number of schemes of public utility in the tribal areas to ameliorate the lot of the people, provide them with amenities of life, increase employment opportunities and make them equal partners in progress and prosperity. The Government provided them with every incentive to take to respectable pursuits. As a result of this encouragement, the tribesmen took to commerce and soon commercial centres sprang up at Sakha Kot, Batkhela (Malakand Agency), Yekka Ghund (Mohmand Agency), Bara, Jamrud and Landi Kotal (Khyber Agency), Parachinar, Sadda (Kurram Agency), Miran Shah (North Waziristan Agency), Wana (South Waziristan Agency) and Darra Adam Khel (Frontier Region Kohat) where business transactions of hundreds and thousands of rupees are made every day.

While millions of rupees were being spent by the British on the highways to subjugate the tribesmen, nothing substantial was spent on the improvement of their social condition. But the Pakistan Government, fully aware of the problems of tribesmen, embarked upon a programme to combat illiteracy, want, misery and disease. The Quaid-d-Azam took a keen interest in the development of the tribal areas. Addressing a historic tribal gathering at Peshawar, the Founder of Pakistan declared "Pakistan wants to help you and make you as far as it lies in our power, self reliant and self sufficient and to help your educational, social and economic uplift and not to be left as you are, depending on annual doles". The Government opened the doors of employment to tribesmen in all spheres of national life. Quotas were allocated for the tribal candidates in the services, and a relaxation of three years was allowed to them in the age limit prescribed for various services. The Frontier Constabulary and Frontier Corps are now almost mainly manned by tribesmen and a respectable share of employment has also been given to them in the regular Armed Forces and other services. This liberal policy has solved their economic problems to a considerable extent. Nowadays scores of tribesmen are engaged in business, trade, commerce, Government and private services and other respectable professions and are serving the country with a spirit of devotion and dedication. In short the tribesmen from Bajaur to Waziristan, with their energy and inherent spirit of enterprise, are forging ahead in every activity of life.