Over 49,000 IDP families still waiting to return to Waziristan

Over 97 per cent IDPs have returned back to their homes in these areas

ISLAMABAD: As many as 49,000 internally displaced families (IDPs) from the South and North Waziristan agencies are still waiting to return home, officials said.

Over 97 per cent of Internally Displaced Person(IDPs) have returned back to their homes in these areas an official told the media on Tuesday. He added that for the remaining IDPs, the government was taking steps to ensure their return soon.

To a question he said that recently the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had handed over 4,000 tents, 8,000 plastic sheets and 4,000 core relief items to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) with the aim of supporting the government's efforts to facilitate returns to South and North Waziristan agencies.

As part of the wider United Nations response in Pakistan to help with the return of IDPs to areas in the country where the security situation has improved.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2017.