Daily Times

The Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) of North Waziristan tribal district postponed their planned sit-in in Peshawar after they were told that a 22-member committee will meet the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Friday to address their grievances.

Earlier, a 30-member delegation of the TDPs held a daylong meeting with FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) Director General (DG) Mehmood Aslam Wazir to discuss the problems they had been facing since their repatriation two years ago.

The TDPs had staged a huge protest in Peshawar against what they alleged was misappropriation in the funds aimed at reconstruction and rehabilitation of the TDPs and the shattered infrastructure of North Waziristan in the backdrop of Zarb-e-Azb.

Tribal elders Malik Nazr Din and Malik Ghulamwere led the protesters who chanted slogans against corruption and demanded that the government take measures to hold the culprits accountable. Dozens of tribal elders also alleged that they did not receive compensation for their damaged houses when the survey to assess damages had been conducted a year ago. Also, the tribal elders complained that officials at the Ghulam Khan checkpoint were creating problems for businessmen and truckers.

The FDMA officials assured the tribesmen that they would get their second installment on October 22 while the third monthly installment would be released on November 15.

Tribal elders Malik Ghulam, Masood Khan, Gul Shah Alam, Malik Abdul Sattar and others attended the meeting. Members of the committee who would attend the scheduled meeting with Governor Shah Farman said that names of the members of his colleagues had already been sent to the Governor House. However, the tribal elders said that they would present the list of their demands to the governor and if he did not settle their problems, they would stage another protest. “If the governor fails to resolve our legitimate problems we will stage an exemplary sit-in in Peshawar this time. No one knows where the funds allocated for IDPs are being spent. We demand proper accountability in this regard,” said one of the tribesman.

Published in Daily Times, October 10^th 2018.