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Pakistan Army and UAE distributed 63,000 food packs among IDPs

Pakistan Army and the United Arab Emirates have so far distributed about sixty-three thousand food packs among the internally displaced people.
The World Food Program has provided over forty-two thousand food packs and UNHCR over thrity-two thousand kits of non-food items to the IDPs. About fifteen thousand IDPs have so far been provided health care facilities.

Pakistan Army and UAE distributed 63,000 food packs among IDPs
 
Dignity left by the roadside for a line to an IDP camp
By Azam Khan
Published: July 17, 2014

BANNU:
In groups of four to five, they take refuge under a chador as no tents have been set up to provide them shade. This is the first of the misery to encounter on the five long hours driving from Islamabad to Bannu. These are the people who have fled the military operation in North Waziristan and now their life consists mainly of standing in line to register with the government in the merciless heat on the roads of Bannu city.


“This does not need any word—it is insulting simply. This is not the way to assist these displaced people,” commented cricket star Younas Khan, who paid a visit to the city on behalf of the Shahid Khan Afridi Foundation and Umair Sana Foundation.

Khan’s focus was the children for whom he came bearing gifts. One of them was Hazrat Anas, a class eight student from Khisu Khel of North Waziristan, who beamed proudly as he held up his new cricket bat.

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As Younas Khan’s vehicle stopped outside a government school, a number of people surrounded it, waving their hands to say hello. An organiser at the foundation told The Express Tribune that whenever they invited a celebrity, people felt comfort and satisfaction to see national heroes come to show solidarity. The arrival of Shahid Afridi, Younas Khan and Shoaib Akhtar also brought smiles to their faces, he said.

The temporary distraction is welcome as the process of leaving their homes has been treacherous and fraught with dangers—some of which follow them into the refugee camp.

Many of the families are not on good terms with each other because of tribal rivalries. This recrimination stretches back decades. So now when they find themselves face-to-face, squeezed into line, the hackles rise. Many of them don’t bother to register. “I have disguised myself to hide my identity,” said one 35-year old.

Professor Ghulam Mustafa of Peshawar University said that many people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas who have been settled for a long time in K-P were also claiming to be displaced people, which was making it doubly difficult for the government to properly register genuinely affected folks.

The whole town is hosting people from North Waziristan, who are now estimated to be around 700,000. Only 37 families of around 1,200 people are living in the camps set up by the government. But media and NGOs are not allowed inside. Non-profits such as the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, Umair Sana Foundation and Al-Khidmat Foundation, have been working in the area.

To add to these tensions, is the mortification of being treated badly. Many of the displaced people said that they were finding it hard to deal with the lack of respect. They have been treated badly while they are standing in line to register or receive rations. It is not easy for a fiercely independent tribesman, respected on his own turf, to take orders from a fresh-faced sipahi from the law-enforcement agencies who are there for crowd control.

The general chaos adds to their exhaustion. For 19-year-old Mohammad Roshan from Miranshah it was overwhelming to try to figure out where he should go to get help. He can hardly be blamed; hospitals are overstretched, doctors and medicines are running short and the threat of epidemics is looming large.

Administrative difficulties

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak told The Express Tribune that the sudden influx of people was to blame for the incoherent aid work. He said that his government has already asked the federal government for meaningful cooperation but to no avail.

Even though the provincial government has given the district administration money, the staff has yet to be paid and as a result they have gone on strike for the last three days.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Imran Khan criticised what he said was the federal government’s refusal to aid the K-P government in the crisis. An estimated 900,000 displaced people have registered in Bannu after fleeing the military operation in North Waziristan Agency.

“We keep hearing the federal government is releasing money for the displaced people but where is it going?” he asked. “It is certainly not being given to the K-P government which is bearing the brunt alone, especially since international aid agencies and NGOs are not being permitted to assist it in its relief efforts.”

This has put a strain on the province’s resources which were already limited. But despite calls for more coordination between the centre and the province, the federal government’s focal person was nowhere to be found on the ground in Bannu.

Imran Khan was also critical of the load-shedding which he said indicated that the federal government didn’t care at all. He claimed that the federal government has cut off electricity to 30 villages around Bannu.

The situation has turned K-P into a calamity-hit area but the federal government is refusing to declare the province as such. The pleas of the CM have gone unheard by the centre at a time when K-P is undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis. “Now one hears that the prime minister is off for a week to Saudi Arabia at a time when he should be devoting his resources and time to steering the country out of the crisis by giving visible leadership.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2014.
 
The Federal Government and the Provincial government both need to put their best step forward to help these people.
 
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Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal Khan handed over a cheque of Rs 200 Million for IDPs to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at PM House on July 18, 2014. Secretary Petroleum Abid Saeed and Advisor Ministry of Petroleum Zahid Muzaffar were also present at the occasion.
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Prime Minister of AJ&K Chaudhry Abdul Majeed presenting a cheque of Rs. 20 Million to Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for PM's Relief Fund for IDPs at PM House Islamabad on 15th July, 2014.
 
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Not welcome: Sindhi nationalists, writers, poets join hands to protest arrival of IDPs
By Our Correspondent
Published: July 20, 2014

KARACHI:
Fearing the incoming IDPs from North Waziristan will jeopardise the fragile demographic balance of Sindh, a group of Sindhi nationalists, writers, poets and intellectuals have joined hands to protest their arrival.


The Sindh Bachayo Committee (SBC), an alliance of Sindh Nationalist Parties who have gained the support of writers and poets as well, has decided to carry out a wheel-jam strike across the province on July 22, announced the SBC during a press conference on Saturday at Hyder Manzil, the residence of the pioneer of the Sindhi nationalist movement, GM Syed.

“We heartedly support the operation against terrorism and extremism and express our profound sympathies with the IDPs,” said SBC convenor Jalal Mehmood Shah at the press conference. “But, at the same time, we have serious concerns over the sheer mismanagement of war victims.”

Shah was joined by Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz’s Dr Niaz Kalani, Awami Jamhoori Party’s Karam Hussain Wasan and several writers and intellectual, such as Jami Chandio, Prof Mushtaq Mirani, Inam Shaikh, Zulfiqar Halepto and Noor Muhammad Memon.

The alliance has also written letters to the prime minister, the Sindh Assembly lawmakers and the country director of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to complain about the ‘alarming influx’ of the IDPs in Sindh, which according to them will jeopardise the fragile demographic balance of Sindh.

Shah pointed out that around 400,000 people from Swat migrated to Sindh in the 2009 operation and at least half of them never went back. “Under the garb of IDPs, terrorists created their safe heavens and have now become a major reason behind the unprecedented wave of terrorist acts in Sindh, particularly in Karachi,” said Shah, adding that the people of Sindh fear the IDPs from North Waziristan will also settle permanently in Sindh.

“There are reports that a large number of children coming from North Waziristan are affected by the polio virus and there is a chance it will spread in Karachi and other districts of the province,” feared Dr Niaz Kalani. The IDPs should be settled in K-P so they are also saved from the financial, physical and mental hardships of travelling this far, he added.

The nationalists called upon the federal and provincial governments, political parties and the civil society to review Article 15 and 23 of the Constitution and permanently ban the migration of ‘outsiders’ to Sindh.

Sindh has been accommodating migrants throughout centuries and they later assimilated with the natives. But now the situation has changed, said Shah, adding that the recent waves of migration have deprived the indigenous people of their jobs, land and other resources. “The federal government will be solely responsible if any wrongdoing happens,” warned Karam Hussain Wasan. “It is constitutionally bound to repatriate the IDPs of the Swat operation and the IDPs of the Waziristan operation and restrict them to adjacent areas of Bannu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.”

Letter to UNHCR

In a letter written to the country director of (UNHCR), Shah quoted international protocols for IDPs. “The IDPs ought to be settled [in areas] nearest to their hometowns, therefore, we demand these people be accommodated in nearby towns, such as Bannu, Tank and DI Khan,” he said.

Successive governments have shown complicity or wilful negligence towards the waves of influxes into Sindh which have drastically vitiated the political atmosphere of the province, the letter said. “We apprehend that, with the given vast space for immigration, the demographic balance would go against the original and bona fide people of Sindh, the Sindhis, and they will irreversibly lose their historically recognised right to rule, to the outsiders and aliens.”

If terrorism is exported to Sindh, it will destabilise the entire region, it added.

In the letter addressed to the Sindh Assembly officials, the SBC convener demanded the provincial body to convene a session on this issue. “Being parliamentarians, you should play your due role and adopt a resolution against the influx of the IDPs,” he demanded. “Otherwise, you will have to pay for criminal negligence and the future generation will hold you responsible for it,” the letter said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2014.
 
Radio Pakistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa govt disburses cash among 5631 IDP families
The provincial health department has increased the number of doctors and paramedics in IDP camps.


The disbursement of cash among IDPs of Northern Waziristan Agency under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Esaar Programme is in progress.

According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Disaster Management Authority, 5,631 families have received cash assistance so far.

About 82 percent IDPs families have got their cash in Bannu.

The Health Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has increased the number of doctors and paramedics in IDP camps.

Twenty doctors and paramedical staff have been deputed in Bannu, 24 in Dera Ismail Khan and 32 in Lakki Marwat.
 
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