Relief efforts: Punjab govt to give Rs7,000 to each displaced family

CM Shahbaz assures of further support on his visit to Bannu.

BANNU:

Each internally displaced family from North Waziristan will receive Rs7,000 per month from the Punjab Financial Assistance Programme fund, announced Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif while talking to journalists during his visit to Bannu to meet the people on Monday.

The CM was accompanied by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Mehtab Abbasi along with Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Amir Muqam. Shahbaz said that the federal government would make the entire government machinery functional to help the displaced people. The government has issued Rs8.3 billion in funds for the affected families, which includes Rs2 billion from the Fata Disaster Management Authority, Rs2.3 billion from the World Food Program and one billion rupees issued to the security forces for the assistance of the displaced families.

“The time for destruction is over now,” he said. “It’s time to reconstruct everything.” The government wants an end to the operation now but such battles cannot be fought every day and the area should successfully be cleared of militants before it does, he added. Shahbaz mentioned that a hospital, technical colleges, institutions for women will be built in North Waziristan with the help of the Punjab government.

Tribal elders from Uthmanzai Wazir met Shahbaz and their elder Nasrullah told him about the problems they were facing.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2014.