BANNU: Former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday said that Pakistan’s armed forces and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are sacrificing for the future of the country.

Speaking to media representatives after visiting IDPs camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu town, he said there was a need to help the IDPs to mitigate their sufferings, adding that it was a national issue.

Gilani was part of a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) delegation that reached the KP’s town via a helicopter from Islamabad to evaluate necessities for the IDPs of North Waziristan Agency in the camps. Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Syed Khurshid Shah and former information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira were also present.

Within the past month, nearly a million people have been displaced due to the military operation, Zarb-i-Azb and have been living in various refugee camps or with host families in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mainly in Bannu. There IDPs are facing acute shortage of basic necessities.

The former prime minister also appealed the international community to extend assistance to the IDPs, saying there was a need of an uninterrupted supply of water and power in the refugee camps.

Khurshid Shah, on the occasion vowed to bring the problems being faced by the IDPs into Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s notice. He said the operation-affected would also be provided help and assistance from the PPP platform.