Census: Only registered TDPs to be counted

Fata Secretariat official says there are more than 100,000 families as unregistered TDPs

PESHAWAR: Only registered temporarily-displaced persons (TDP) will be included in the official count of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas while the remaining will be counted as part of the areas they have been currently residing.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held in Islamabad earlier this week which was attended by officials of the finance ministry, Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron), Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, FATA Secretariat and representatives of Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas.



An official of the Ministry of Safron told The Express Tribune that three categories of TDPs came under discussion during the course of the meeting: those who are registered but came back to the settled areas after they returned to their native villages and found their house demolished, the second category is of those who are unregistered TDPs while the third category includes those who crossed the border and went to Afghanistan.

An official of the Fata Secretariat told The Express Tribune that there are more than 100,000 families as unregistered TDPs.

The sources quoted an official of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics as telling them that no proper mechanism could be formulated regarding unregistered TDPs at the moment as the census has already been kicked off, while officials dealing with the census said they should have been informed earlier.



While the Fata Secretariat said they were not consulted on the issue, added the source.

“It was then decided that those unregistered TDPs, who have been living in settled areas, should be registered in the areas where they are [living at present],” the sources said, adding “The decision was taken to avoid any possible issues emerging in the ongoing census if they are left uncounted.”

As per the census law, people who refuse to cooperate with census teams are liable to be punished for up to six months in jail and fined as well.

Regarding the registered TDPs, the Fata Secretariat official said: “The secretariat will provide details of registered TDPs to the census department in the 10-day gap between the first and second phase in the census during which the data will be processed.

For the third category, those who are currently displaced and are in Afghanistan, they will be left out of the count.  An official of the Ministry of Safron said that the TDPs across the border contacted them and asked for the repatriation, although the process once began could not be halted.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2017.