Musakhel, a rural district, is connected with other parts of the province and the country by black top as well as shingle roads. However, the amount of traffic on these roads is low. Electricity is available in one town only and telephone facilities are suspended these days due to poor functioning of the installations. Gas is not available. The banking facility is limited to Musakhel town only and postal services are not available to all the villages. Radio and television ownership is not registered.

The total length of roads within the district is 356 kilometres, out of which only 70 kilometres are metalled (black top). This only piece of black top road is part of the National Highway (N-70) which connects Loralai to Dera Ghazi Khan via Kingri (a town of Musakhel district). This road is maintained by the National Highway Authority. All shingle roads were constructed and are maintained by the provincial Buildings and Roads (B&R) Division of the Communications and Works (C&W) Department. Unavailability, and sometimes improper utilisation, of development budget and highly unfavourable cost-benefit analyses are two major factors behind this little length of roads.

Unavailability of black top roads in the district has hampered transportation and, consequently, trade activities on a widespread scale. Due to high maintenance cost of the vehicles, transporters demand high fares. Some areas do not even have shingle roads, as a result of which agriculture products cannot be marketed. In order to travel the best road – still shingle – to Musakhel town, one has to cross 6 streams. No bridges have been constructed on the rivulets throughout the district, so it is impossible to cross them during times of heavy rain. As a consequence, the district is at times cut from other parts of the country.

Since Musakhel is a fairly new district, registration of motor-vehicles has not been started for private vehicles. Only a few government vehicles do have registration numbers issued from Musakhel. There are a limited number of vehicles registered in other districts like Loralai and Dera Ghazi Khan. Some illegally imported vehicles have also been seen in Musakhel. These vehicles have fake number plates but no authority is there to check them.

Only one bus, one mini-bus, one van, and three pick-ups ply between Musakhel and Loralai while one van plies between Musakhel and Dera Ghazi Khan. The main route of public transport is via Kingri while the only bus service is available via Murgha Kibzai.

The district has neither railways nor air links to other parts of the country.

Only some people have television sets and hardly any of them pays Ptv licence fee. Therefore, no records about the number of television sets is available. The same is the situation for radio ownership. However, through observation it can be estimated that every tenth household has a radio set. There is no local radio station and people listen to broadcasts from the Dera Ghazi Khan, Loralai (test transmission only), and Quetta stations.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) established telephone exchanges at four villages in Musakhel – Kingri, Rarasham, Drug, and Musakhel – but at present none of these is functional. Telephone wires are often cut and installations are destroyed. Bills are hardly paid. After an incidence of firing at the Musakhel exchange, telephone services in the district have been suspended. At present, there are 4 telephone exchanges in Musakhel district with a capacity of 200 lines at Musakhel, of 50 lines at Kingri and Drug each and of 30 lines at Rarasham. To date, 196 telephone connections have been provided in the whole district, but they are still suspended. However, a few microwave telephone connections are working in the district. At present, there is no public call office or fax service available in the district.

In Musakhel district, the Pakistan Postal Services Corporation has established one post office at Musakhel town and 13 other localities have mail distribution facilities. Delayed mail delivery, where this facility is available, is a common complaint. No special mail service is available.

 At present, no courier service has established its office in the district.

There is only one bank in the district, i.e. the National Bank of Pakistan, at Musakhel town. It provides banking services to residents and functions as a treasury bank on behalf of the State Bank of Pakistan.

There used to be one branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan at Musakhel, but it has been closed since 1^st July 1996 due to poor performance. It was a bank providing loans to farmers for agricultural development. The bank lent an amount of 2.345 million rupees in 1993-94 and of 13.729 million rupees in 1994-95. In the year 1995-96, this amount decreased to just 0.27 million rupees. Of the total amount given out in loans (16.344 million rupees) only 4.143 million rupees could be recovered. In this situation the authorities decided to close down the Musakhel branch. However, the Loralai branch still provides loans to the farmers of Musakhel if required.

In order to sanction a loan by the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan agricultural land is mortgaged and a loan up to 66 percent of its value can be provided on which 14.5 percent mark-up is charged. Sometimes, a personal guarantee is accepted if the required loan does not exceed 30 thousand rupees. Usually, the loan is used to purchase a tractor or to install a tube well. Any type of agriculture based industry can be financed under the bank’s manifesto. Credit is also given for things like seeds and fertilisers.

There is only one town, i.e. Kingri, which has regular electric supply. All other parts of the district do not have electricity. There was one diesel power generation plant functioning at Musakhel which provided electricity to the town for a limited number of hours per day. In the beginning of 1997, somebody fired upon one of the transformers and destroyed it partially. Although the damage was not severe, WAPDA decided to suspend its operation.

To date, 442 connections have been given at Kingri, 46 of which are commercial. No connection has yet been given for agricultural purposes. The overall realisation of the assessed revenue from Musakhel district is 35-40 percent.

Estimates about the load requirement of the area is not available. However, development work for laying high tension 11 kV transmission lines from Kingri grid station to Musakhel is in progress. After completion of the transmission lines it may be expected that at least some of the towns will have access to this basic amenity. However, there is an intense need for creation of a befitting environment to provide security to the installations as well as the personnel.

Musakhel does not have access to gas through pipelines, nor is there an agency for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the district. However, some well-to-do people buy gas cylinders from Loralai or Dera Ghazi Khan. Most of the people use fuel wood and dung cakes for cooking and heating.

There are only 3 rest houses in the district at Kingri, Musakhel, and Drug. These rest houses provide accommodation for visitors, but do not play a role in the development of the tourism sector.

Most of the economic infrastructure and communications are developed and managed by government, either federal or provincial. The private sector is involved in transport only. Control of all these sectors by government creates a non-competitive atmosphere which ultimately hampers socio-economic development.

Musakhel is connected to other parts of the country by road only, but the length of the only black top road is only 70 kilometres. Development of any area is hard to be imagined without roads. Therefore it may be imperative to construct more metalled roads and link farms to markets by more shingle roads. The construction of bridges on brooks also seems to be necessary in view of the relatively high level of rainfall.

At present the district is deprived of basic amenities like electricity, telephone, and gas. Electricity is the most demanded facility, both for lighting and tube wells to irrigate the field. It is hoped that electricity provision to Musakhel through national grid will remove a major stumbling block to development.

Postal services need to be expanded and improved.

In view of the crucial role of the Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan, the Musakhel branch should be re-opened. Another issue in this respect, is that this bank should also provide credit facilities for women to encourage their participation in handicraft and livestock.

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