Internal displacement: Assessment team to brief chief secretary today

Officials visit Bannu to take stock of preparations for IDPs.

PESHAWAR: Several government officials have visited Bannu district and prepared an overview of arrangements in place to deal with the movement of displaced people from North Waziristan into settled districts, following airstrikes in the agency.

According to a notification issued on Sunday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Home Secretary Akhtar Ali Shah, SAFRON Additional Secretary Tariq Hayat, Bannu Commissioner Syed Mohsin Shah, the Fata law and order secretary, and officials of the provincial and federal disaster management authorities (PDMA/FDMA) visited Bannu on Saturday.

They assessed and made recommendations for arrangements made for dealing with internally displaced persons (IDP).

The notification states the Bannu commissioner has prepared a detailed presentation on the state of the government’s preparedness and will give the recommendations of the visiting committee to the K-P Chief Secretary (CS) Shahzad Arbab on Monday (today).

Earlier last week, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan visited Peshawar and discussed the possible movement of IDPs with the governor, chief minister, provincial police chief and the chief secretary.

Following the interior minister’s visit, CS Arbab chaired a meeting on Friday and discussed arrangements for the IDPs with Home Secretary Shah, and officials of the FATA Secretariat, PDMA, FDMA and Bannu district government.

The CS then directed a team of officials to visit Bannu, where a number of IDPs have already arrived, and to assess the on ground situation.

Arbab also instructed the officials to submit a report to him.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2014.