PESHAWAR: Elders of Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) have demanded the government to announce a special financial relief package for rehabilitation of the temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) at their respective hometowns.
Speaking at a news conference at press club on Monday, they asked the government to constitute a commission to investigate into alleged embezzlement in the funds for rehabilitation of the TDPs.
Abdul Karim Mehsud, a tribal elder, said the government had received millions of dollars as financial assistance, but it didn’t utilise funds in an appropriate manner to mitigate the sufferings of militancy-hit people of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Flanked by chief of Mehsud tribe, Shahzada, elders Malik Noor Khan, Malikd Kabal Khan, Malik Sarwar, Malik Javed Mehsud, and others, he accused the FATA Disastrous Management Authority (FDMA) and FATA Development Authority of misusing funds.
“Did anybody ask the authorities concerned where it spend the amount received from the outside world,” he aksed. He alleged the government officials, and supporters had distributed funds among themselves, without any check and audit. He demanded the government to constitute a commission to probe into the alleged embezzlement of funds.
Karim Mehsud termed Rs 400,000, compensation package for each victim family, insufficient and demanded the government to give Rs five million to compensate the loss.
Responding to a question, he said a total of 40,000 displaced people from Mehsud tribe were registered with authorities concerned, which he said, could not acceptable to them. He asked to ensure 100 per cent registration of displaced families, belonging from Mehsud tribe of the SWA.
He asked the local and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to give priority to local people in recruitments in various development projects launched in FATA, and called for extension of Red Crescent services to whole SWA.
He urged the government to resolve the difficulties of the tribal people while seeking compurterised national identity cards (CNICs). He asked the government to establish dams in entire SWA, and called for initiation of work on Tangi Kisro dam along with expediting development work in the tribal agency.
Chief of Mehsud tribe said that the displaced families were facing numerous financial and administrative issues due to apathy of the authorities concerned. “Tribesmen are patriotic citizens of the country, which had rendered matchless sacrifices of the motherland, but government has failed to resolve their issues on priority basis,” he said.