The Hindu News Update Service

Islamabad (PTI): The Governor of Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province, who brokered a controversial peace accord with pro-Taliban militants that was not effectively implemented, has resigned.

NWFP Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai sent his resignation to President Pervez Musharraf, who has accepted it, state-run PTV reported on Saturday.

Owais Ahmad Ghani, the Governor of Balochistan, has been nominated to succeed Aurakzai. Ghani is expected to take oath on Monday.

The Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court will be the acting Governor till new appointment is made, officials said.

Aurakzai, who became the Governor of NWFP in May 2004, sent his resignation to Musharraf on Thursday. It was not immediately clear why he had decided to quit.

There has been speculation regarding Aurakzai's departure from Governor House for some time.

Aurakzai was chief architect of a controversial agreement between the government and militants in North Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan in September 2006.

But the pact came in for criticism in Pakistan and abroad, with some analysts describing it as a total capitulation to the militants. Some critics of the agreement also said it lacked an effective monitoring system to ensure its implementation.

The US has described the Waziristan tribal region as a "safe haven" for al-Qaeda and Taliban.

President George W Bush said in a radio address later that Musharraf recognises that the agreement "has not been successful or well-enforced and is taking active steps to correct it".