Refuge and relief: Distribution of assistance among IDPs begins

Military operation, rehabilitation of IDPs to be complete in six months: Mashhood.

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the government had started distributing financial assistance among the internally displaced persons (IDPs). He said that Rs7,000 were being provided to each displaced family.

Sharif said that financial assistance to the IDPs would be provided in a timely and transparent fashion. The chief minister was speaking to a delegation of lawmakers.

He said that the government would utilise all resources at its disposal to provide succour to the displaced people. Sharif said that the people of Punjab would not abandon their compatriots from North Waziristan. The chief minister said that relief efforts would continue till hostilities ceased. He said that the government would not rest till the displaced people were rehabilitated. Sharif said that the public had contributed tens of millions of rupees to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the IDPs. The chief minister said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmakers had contributed a month’s salary towards the fund. He said that government servants had also contributed a day’s salary towards the fund.

Sharif said that the donations collected would be spent in transparently. He said that the war against terrorism had displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The chief minister said that assisting the displaced population of North Waziristan was a national, religious and collective responsibility of society. Sharif urged the affluent to generously contribute to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund for the IDPs.

Former law minister Rana Mashhood on Wednesday said that the military operation and process of rehabilitating internally displaced persons will be complete in the next four to six months,.

He was addressing a press conference at the Circuit House in Multan. He said more than 500 terrorists have been exterminated and 80 per cent of North Waziristan has been reclaimed so far. The nation stands with the army on the operation and feels the pain of the IDPs.

Mashhood said that soon the IDPs would be able to return to their homes safe and sound.

Mashhood said that the youth of Punjab had responded enthusiastically to the chief minister’s call for funds for internally displaced persons. “We have more than 70,000 volunteers registered and expect this number to reach a million by August 14,” he said.

Starting August 14, these volunteers will go door to door in every village, town and city to collect funds. “Our target is to collect a billion rupees for our brothers and sisters in need,” Mashhood said.

He said the government of Punjab was collecting funds for the IDPs as well. It had donated Rs500 million and will hopefully take the donations up to Rs50 billion.

He said the government had planned to hold four cricket matches, featuring the national cricket team, to raise funds for the IDPs. These matches will be played in Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore, he said. “The families of soldiers who have been martyred in the war against terror will be chief guests at the cricket matches.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2014.