Displaced families: With starts and stops, registration process falls apart
The registration of internally displaced persons from North Waziristan Agency started in the city after a three-hour delay and came to a halt before the scheduled end.
The process of registering people from Miranshah was supposed to begin at 7am but it started at around 10am due to a lack of security and other necessary arrangements, said Haseeb Khan, who is the deputy director for the FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA).
Disaster management officials and families reached the venue, Government Degree College in Hayatabad Phase 7, early in the morning but there was no staff to organise the people into queues. The registration was stopped at that point, said Khan. It will start again on Tuesday (today), he added, when the people of Miranshah will be registered with families from Boya and Datta Khel.
However, the mismanagement meant that the displaced families had to wait under the scorching sun. Ameer Rehman, who reached the venue on time, told The Express Tribune, “The thirst is unbearable, it’s Ramazan and we had to wait in a long line.”
Only two gates were open to enter the college, said Syed Kamal, another displaced person. There was no separate entrance for women, who also had to suffer the heat and the rush, he added.
The process, which was meant to begin full swing on July 7 will continue till July 14. After the families from tehsils of North Waziristan Agency are registered in Peshawar, they will be eligible to receive Rs5,000 in cash for rent for accommodation and the Ramazan package as promised by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Daily situation report
According to a daily situation report issued by the chief secretary’s control room set up at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), a total of 62,493 families and 787,888 individuals have been registered at PDMA registration points. Sunday’s reports had placed this figure at 572,529. A large number of livestock have also been brought over by the people.
A relief camp has been set up at Bannu and works under the PDMA. It will support the district administration in relief work. The situation report states a decision was taken by the federal government to also set up camps inside the frontier regions which fall within the jurisdiction of the Fata administration.
Camps established by the FDMA are jointly administered by the Pakistan Army and the disaster management authority, where all facilities like shelter, cooked food, water and other allied services are being provided.
Streamlining assistance
As many of the people have chosen to live off camp sites, the provincial government has decided to convert material aid into cash assistance for at least 15,000 families each of which will be given Rs3,000 per month up to six months, stated the report.
Both FDMA and PDMA are transferring aid on the basis of data verified by the National Database and Registration Authority.
The statement added that humanitarian assistance has been streamlined, on the orders of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary, by channelling relief through the government, with particular focus on the offices of the deputy commissioners.
The PDMA has requested all deputy commissioners to form district-level committees to gather information about displaced people living with their relatives. This data will be used for security as well as the provision of relief these people.
Health facilities
The director-general of health services paid a visit to Bannu and formed teams to provide round-the-clock emergency care to the displaced people. This will include the treatment for heat stroke, joint aches, immunisations among other complaints.
The public health engineering department has also been directed to ensure they provide clean drinking water at the camps.
Additional vehicles were also placed at the disposal of the Bannu district administration. Rescue 1122 has provided three state-of-the-art ambulances as well as staff, added the statement.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
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Simply shocking that 787,888 Pathan’s have been made IDP’s by the Punjabi dominated Pakistan Military’s Zarb-e-Azb operation in North Waziristan Agency!
Long past time for Civil Society of Pakistan, led by the members of the Press like Express Tribune to demand that Punjabi dominated Military of Pakistan cease and desist from resort to disproportionate force by use of indiscriminate tools of coercion like Artillery and Aerial bombing strikes targeting the hapless Pathans given that such use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force inevitably creates a humanitarian crisis.
Given Punjabi dominated Military’s obsession with comparing themselves with India, Civil Society of Pakistan, led by the members of the Press like Express Tribune should demand Punjabi dominated Military follow India’s humane example. India it will be recollected combats Islamic Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir without use of disproportionate and indiscriminate tools of coercion like Artillery and Aerial bombing.
Punjabi dominated Pakistani Military should be made by Civil Society of Pakistan, led by the members of the Press like Express Tribune, to stop thinking like an occupying Military force such as the US Military in Afghanistan and think like a National Army operating in a counter insurgency role on her own territory like the case of the Indian Army in Jammu & Kashmir.
If the thought of emulating Non-Muslims is unpalatable to the Punjabi dominated Military then let Civil Society of Pakistan, led by the members of the Press like Express Tribune remind that the Pathan’s are also Muslims and that they should not be spending the Muslim holy month of Ramazan as refugees.
Such a change in mind-set of Punjabi dominated Pakistani Military will result in eschewing the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate tools of coercion like Artillery and Aerial bombing and mitigate/prevent IDP problem.
787,888 Pathan’s surely deserve better than spending the Muslim holy month of Ramazan as refugees.
ET should have been saying what I will be saying. ET may make amends by publishing what I am going to say besides investigating same.
Claim of there being 787,888 registered IDP’s from North Waziristan Agency (NWA) is a gross fabrication.
Last census (1998) reported NWA population as numbering 361,246 besides reporting that population growth rate for NWA for the period 1981-98 was 2.46 % p.a:
http://fata.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=92
Assuming that the 2.46% annual population growth rate held good even after the 1998 population census, NWA population in 2014 would be around 532,933. That is 254,955 less than the claimed number of 787,888 IDP’s arising from the military operation Zarb-e-Azb in NWA.
Either the bureaucrats of FATA Disaster Management Authority or the Generals of the Pakistan Army who are administering IDP camps are profiting from ghost IDP’s. That this is happening in the name providing succour during of Holy to Muslim’s month of Ramazan aka Ramadan must surely be most distasteful to Muslim’s, particularly those living in an Islamic Republic such as Pakistan.