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Qaim Ali Shah restricts influx of IDPs into Sindh | Pakistan | Dunya News
HYDERABAD (Dunya News) -- Chief Minister (CM) Sindh Qaim Ali Shah while addressing an iftaar party said that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) will not be allowed to enter the territory of Sindh whereas relief camps have already been set up at the borders of Sindh.


CM Sindh reiterated that IDPs will not be allowed to enter the territory of Sindh and suspected terrorists will be returned from the boundary of Sindh, adding that even during the time of Swat operation many people who tried to enter Sindh were involved in terrorist activities.


Shah on a different note said that inflation and unemployment in the country were solely responsible for mass poverty whereas substantive efforts were being made to eradicate poverty.



On the other hand,the movement against the influx of refugees to restrict the IDPs from entering Sindh is gaining momentum as on Saturday nationalist parties in Sindh called for a complete shutter down strike in the province on July 22.
 
Hindus, Buddhists and Baha’is among IDPs
By Iftikhar Firdous
Published: July 22, 2014

BANNU / PESHAWAR: A total of 165 families of non-Muslims have been displaced from North Waziristan, according to the latest count by the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA). Data gathered by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) states that 114 Christian, 29 Hindu, 10 Baha’i and 4 Buddhist families are among those displaced.

Additionally, 10 families have been classified as belonging to ‘other’ religions. “The number of ethnic or religious minorities who were living in North Waziristan may increase as we receive more data,” a senior FDMA official told The Express Tribune.

Registration of those displaced from North Waziristan has now ended in Bannu and Peshawar. In the second phase of the registration process, the government says it aims to transfer compensation to the registered families while also pinpointing marginalised groups who require assistance.

NADRA has verified 82 families as permanent residents of NWA, while 51 have not been verified as their addresses on their CNICs do not match; 32 families have not been verified due to ‘family rejection’. The names and addresses of these families have been kept confidential for security reasons.

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The earliest references to Buddhist settlements in North Waziristan come from historian and archeologist Dr Ahmad Hassan Dani, who discovered the first Kharosthi (an ancient script used by the Gandhara culture) script in North Waziristan as well as a stupa in Speenwam Tehsil in 1966.

A senior official from the provincial archeology department who wished to remain anonymous said there is scattered information regarding archeological sites in North Waziristan. “It is an unexplored area and my only hope is that the valuable treasures here survive the conflict,” he said.

The number of registered families has dropped from 92,702 to 49,857 after NADRA’s verification process. Acting DG FDMA Abdul Majeed said the number may rise to 60,000. A number of people registered themselves multiple times and those living outside the agency also registered themselves as IDPs, he said. Majeed added that arrangements have been made for women or children who have travelled without a male relative or family and tribal elders are assisting political agents in identifying those without CNICs.

While the registration process has been hampered by a lack of preparedness and a political tussle between the provincial and federal governments, officials in Bannu say that even though there has been a delay in relief efforts, competition between the governments has results in an increasing cash flow to IDPs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2014.
 
Non Muslim of Waziristan

They are getting govt support but they want to return to Waziristan.they said even if Whole of Pakistan is given to us we will not exchange it for Waziristan.

They said people are saying that the IDP's will not return to Waziristan like Afghan refugees in Pakistan but they say even if now it is annouced that we shall return to Waziristan,we will do so now

 
First they need to take care of illegal bengalis and afghanis in Karachi.
Actually IDPs of Swat had a significant contribution in increased crime rate in Karachi. These people have been very active in street crimes, extortion and drugs. Even today, one of my colleagues told me that the Sindhi Nationalists stopped a bus and ordered the people coming from Swat to go back. Those already residing in Karachi were allowed to go ahead.
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To be honest, an appeal most likely in vain....
 
Actually IDPs of Swat had a significant contribution in increased crime rate in Karachi. These people have been very active in street crimes, extortion and drugs. Even today, one of my colleagues told me that the Sindhi Nationalists stopped a bus and ordered the people coming from Swat to go back. Those already residing in Karachi were allowed to go ahead.
7-22-2014_24268_1.gif



To be honest, an appeal most likely in vain....

Well there is no excuse for crimes.
 
Footprints: Sindh hardens its heart
By Saher Baloch
Published about 21 hours ago
Photo from June 19, 2014 shows Sindh Bachayo Committee convener Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah on Saturday holding up a letter sent by the alliance to the prime minister over the issue of internally displaced persons.—White Star
PERCHED high on a truck, Niaz Kalani of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) is in the middle of an intense speech as he criticises and shames the elected representatives of Sindh for acting irresponsibly. In the sweltering noon heat, a motley group of people belonging to the Sindh Bachayo Committee (SBC) listen to him either sitting or squatting on red mats spread on the left lane of the main National Highway across the Bin Qasim bypass in Hyderabad. The area surrounding the sit-in seems festive, as a group of lawyers affiliated with the Progressive Lawyers Forum have also joined the protest. Sitting beside other SBC members, Asadullah Shah says: “As a people we have our sympathies with the IDPs but as part of a province our reservations are quite clear. The worsening law and order situation in Karachi, along with the ailing economy of the province in general, is reflective of the growing disparity across Sindh. Allowing unregistered IDPs anywhere is the biggest mistake a government can make.”

Nearby, Zain Kalani, 28, a student activist of the JSQM, nods whenever he thinks the speaker has made a valid point. Standing beside him, some of his comrades are either busy shouting slogans or checking out the people joining the protest as Niaz’s voice goes up a notch. Naming a specific ethnicity and referring to them as the ‘Taliban’, Niaz’s voice goes hoarse trying to shout out to the authorities that, “Once inside our territory, these people will indulge in terrorist activities. They are dharyal [thief]. And that’s what they are good at.” The comment is received with loud applause and whistles. The sit-in is part of the various protests organised by the SBC in recent weeks against the influx of IDPs in Sindh. Speaking about the exodus, Zain says the job insecurity that the province has seen in recent years speaks for itself. “As Sindhis, we are on the verge of becoming a minority in our own province. Ten years back, an axe or a stick were the only things a farmer had. Now, we see caches of weapons being distributed around. We feel insecure in our own land. Who should we hold responsible for that?”

As the clock strikes two, the nationalists along with the group who had gathered around to see what was happening, scurry away to make way for the honking transport trucks heading to their destinations.

Back in Karachi, high court lawyer Shah Wali Khan is putting the finishing touches to a petition he will file in the high court after Eid. The petition pertains to the ongoing harassment faced by the IDPs in Sindh. “This move by the nationalists to stop and harass IDPs is unconstitutional. You can’t stop people from moving within a country,” he says. The annoyance in his voice is obvious when he says: “Families have been stopped and handed over to police officers stationed at the National and Super highways. Most have been questioned for hours. It is an attempt to hurt the basic ideology of Pakistan. This country was not made for a particular ethnicity or a community. Pakhtuns are as much a part of it as anyone else. Pakhtuns are not terrorists.”

Most Sindh districts observe half-day shutdown on SBC call

Voicing similar concerns, Malik Ghulam Khan, an elder of a jirga in North Waziristan and currently an activist in Bannu, says in a telephonic conversation: “The treatment meted out to the IDPs at various camps is beyond deplorable. People are baton-charged if they protest at the slow distribution of rations. The registration process has not started yet.”

Recently, a police officer opened fire inside a football stadium, a ration distribution point near Kohat checkpoint in Bannu, killing one and wounding two, he says, after a few men got into a spat with the officer over the lack of rations at the stadium. “I just want to add that these families are innocent and peaceful. Only people who have left their hearth and home will understand how it feels to be questioned in your own country,” he says.

“This movement to restore the sanctity of Sindh by nationalists is motivated by three factors,” says Riaz Ahmed Sheikh, head of the social sciences department at the Szabist education institute. “One of them is to create a nuisance. Since most of these nationalists were not elected to power in the general elections of 2013, they have to resort to such issues for their own survival. Secondly, with the exodus new avenues to earn money come to the fore, to which most ethnicities have not been able to adapt themselves the way the Pakhtuns have. And, third, is to protect their economic interests, which also involves holding on to the land they have illegally grabbed over the years.”
 
Footprints: Orphaned and Displaced

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Too often in war, it is children that are the worst affected. Their suffering is not just physical; scars and bruises mean little to the hardened war-zone child, be it Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Gaza or the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) estimates that there are 1,478 registered orphans — defined as girls and boys without a father — among the displaced of North Waziristan. And then those without either parent: 58 such children, 39 boys and 19 girls, have been registered by the authority’s child protection team so far.

We drive into the Baka Khel camp for displaced persons, located in a vast open field a good half-hour drive from Bannu city. There is no shade for miles around, save the few tents that dot the landscape in the distance.



Experts, politicians express concern over IDP crisis



Making our way through layer upon layer of barbed wire, past a row of World Food Programme tents and into the registration area, we encounter a burly subedar holding office. He regards us suspiciously, initially, and then — after we introduce ourselves — cautiously. We explain that we’ve come to interview some of the orphaned children and maybe he can help us identify them.

Thankfully, the subedar tells me, most such children live with host families in either Bannu city or further afield. A few though, have been left to fend for themselves.

The subedar remembers a boy in a red cap, the 14-year-old Mussawir, who came to the camp without any papers. A Wazir from a village on the outskirts of Miramshah, his family of five walked the treacherous 70-odd kilometres to Baka Khel in the blistering July heat. His father passed away some years ago; his eldest brother, 17-year-old Abrar, only made it to the camp on Friday, some four weeks after the rest of the family arrived. None of them have an identity card. Since registration in camps and at distribution points hinges on the possession of a valid identity card, it’s easy to imagine how easily such families are marginalised.

“I drive with a truck from Kohat to Khost; it’s a living,” says Abrar, shrugging his shoulders. I ask if we can speak to the rest of his family. He rushes off in a flurry of Pashto and is back hardly a minute later, family in tow.

We introduce ourselves to his mother, the stately Ladona Bibi. She wears the look of a woman who has spent too long taking care of her family with too little help. Abrar’s cross-border sojourns only fetch them so much, but she cuts a courageous figure nonetheless. When I ask what she said to her eldest boy when he arrived nearly a month late, she chuckles and says, “He went with the truck [to Afghanistan] and just stayed there. We’re glad that he’s back.”

As we talk to their mother, the children arrange themselves neatly in front of her, a captive audience. Even if they understand what she’s talking about, their faces don’t betray the knowledge; they giggle amongst themselves. Little Khadija and Fatima look like two of the most beautiful children in the world; on closer inspection, though, one can see the scars on their faces and the solemn eyes belying each smile. They all wear the same vacant look, so wrong and out of place on their youthful faces.

Young Mussawir, the youth the subedar remembered, is away looking for work in Bannu bazaar. Abrar, the eldest, squatting on the ground next to his mother, says he couldn’t afford to go back to the trucks because that would take him away from his family. “My family needs me. We’re here as long as the operation is on. What choice do we have? Our home, as we knew it, is probably no more,” he muses.

I ask Ladona Bibi for permission to photograph her children, and she surprises everyone by offering to pose with them. Abrar, however, quickly intercedes on grounds of purdah. We take a few pictures and say our goodbyes.

As we leave, a lawmaker from North Waziristan is distributing ‘gifts’ and care packages amongst children and adults. Abrar rushes into the fray in the hope of securing a packet or three, but his younger siblings linger near the swings, with a strange, unnatural calm, passively watching other people tear at each other.

As we drive back through Bannu and pass the massive distribution point at the stadium, I can’t help but wonder how long these clamouring crowds will collect here. How often? And for how little? I can’t help but wonder if this is the only future available to the orphans of North Waziristan, children who have already lost out on a childhood.

Footprints: Orphaned and Displaced - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
 
Punjab govt to build 2,000 homes for IDPs in North Waziristan
By Saqib Nasir
Published: July 30, 2014
BANNU: Expressing solidarity with internally displaced persons (IDPs) of North Waziristan as he arrived in Bannu on Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced that the provincial government will build at least 2,000 homes in North Waziristan for the displaced people.

Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Sardar Mehtab Abbasi and Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid also accompanied the Punjab chief minister on his visit to Bannu.

While addressing the IDPs, Shahbaz revealed that the Punjab government will give Rs350 million to 54,000 displaced families in August.

Shahbaz also stated that the Punjab government will build a hospital costing Rs1 billion and a university in North Waziristan.

Commenting on the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan, he said, “this war will change the country to what Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Dr Allama Iqbal envisioned.”

Shahbaz also distributed Eid gifts and relief goods among the displaced persons.

“The role of IDPs will be written in history,” the chief minister remarked, referring to the sacrifices of the IDPs who had to leave their homes after the operation began.

Shahbaz said that this is a difficult time not just for the displaced people but for all Pakistanis, further stating that the entire nation is standing by the IDPs.

The Punjab chief minister also said that the migration of IDPs will not go to waste, adding that they had left their homes to make peace possible.
 
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