Addressing the plight of IDPs

Many militants have indeed escaped as IDPs but the automatic reaction should not be to assume every IDP a terrorist


Editorial December 21, 2014

Despite the military claiming that 90 per cent of North Waziristan is now settled and clear of militants, rehabilitating two million traumatised internally displaced persons (IDP) strewn across the length and breadth of the country is no easy feat. It may take years before the citizens of Fata are able to go back to their previous lives and homes, many of which, one expects, have been destroyed. In the meantime, little seems to be done about Pakistan’s most vulnerable population. The camps, already overcrowded, are struggling to supply basic amenities like food, shelter and clean water. The IDPs who refused to live in such circumstances are trying their luck in major cities like Islamabad and Karachi instead, but with hardly better results. Many are stigmatised as Taliban operatives and are harassed by, and reported to, the police. They receive little help from the federal or provincial governments, and struggle to find employment, eventually resigning themselves to begging.

The condition of the IDPs is an ugly rebuff to Pakistan’s self-image as being a generous and hospitable country; unfortunately, IDPs have not been privy to either. As Pakistani citizens, IDPs have the right to move and settle anywhere within Pakistan’s borders. In a case where they have been forced to move, the state and its citizens should be more responsive to their relocation and their needs. Beyond the moral hazard, there is also a strategic one. The truth is that many militants have indeed escaped as IDPs and do pose a threat to the state. The automatic reaction, however, should not be to assume every IDP is a terrorist, but to create a relocation and rehabilitation programme that IDPs would want to sign up for, and provide transparent screening in the process, so that no IDP is left out of the safety net. Effective rehabilitation is also necessary to maintain the goodwill of the residents of Fata; their support is critical to the government’s fight against militancy. Militant groups cannot sustain themselves without public support, and the government ought to do everything it can to deny them this by effectively rehabilitating the IDPs.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd,  2014.

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