Punjab to welcome any number of IDPs: PML-N leader
Camps to be set up for displaced persons
Monday, May 25, 2009
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: Unlike the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s strong opposition to the arrival of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Malakand Division in Sindh, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has announced that it would welcome any number of such persons in the Punjab and take care of them in every respect.
However, so far not a single camp has been established in the Punjab because there has not been any major influx of the IDPs in this province. ìWe are prepared to set up any number of camps for the IDPs in the Punjab,î senior spokesman for the PML-N and Punjab government Senator Pervez Rashid told The News.
Meanwhile, Senator Ishaq Dar, who is overseeing the PML-Nís relief operations for the IDPs, has given a personal donation of Rs 50 million, which is the highest announced by any single individual so far.
Earlier, the family of former foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had handed over a donation of Rs 10 million and the Sharif family Rs 50 million. Responding to MQMís Federal Minister Farooq Sattarís opposition to the IDPsí arrival in Sindh, Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh President Shahi Syed was quoted as saying on Friday that the Malakand Division victims were going to other areas out of compulsion. “They should be allowed to shift to every region of Pakistan.”
At a news conference on Friday, Dr Farooq Sattar announced the MQMís unanimous and unconditional support to the Sindh-based parties against the accommodation of the IDPs in the province.
An MQM delegation is shortly meeting President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Minister Rehman Malik to bring to their notice the ìconcernsî of the people of Sindh in this connection. Pervez Rashid said the IDPs had every right to go anywhere in Pakistan and there should be no bar on their movement inside the country.
However, he said since the impression was that the IDPs would go back to their native areas in the next two-three weeks because of the conclusion of the military operation, most of them had preferred to shift to the region neighbouring Mardan.
The PML-N leader said 80 per cent of the massive assistance being extended to the IDPs by the PML-N was being arranged by his party and the remaining 20 per cent by the Punjab government.
He said his party had sent 40 lady doctors, 200 paramedics and 40 ambulances to the IDP camps near Mardan. He said the Punjab government was not only directly supplying flour to the IDPs but also doing so for the NGOs and international organisations working in the area.
Punjab to welcome any number of IDPs: PML-N leader