ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch said here on Tuesday that the military operation against Taliban might fail to restore peace if internally displaced people were not taken care of well.

Gen Baloch, who is federal government’s focal person for handling the IDP issue, said that “clearing the area of militants is not difficult, but the challenging part of the operation is to provide relief to the displaced people, followed by their rehabilitation”.

“If IDPs go back unhappy they will be exploited by anti-state elements for their nefarious designs,” the minister said while talking to newsmen.

According to him, people of the country were by far more mobilised at the time of the Oct 2005 earthquake and later floods of 2010-11, to help their brethren in need than now when an equally serious challenge was being faced.

Minister says the 2005 earthquake and 2010-11 floods drew better response from the nation

“I consider it as a national failure and hold all sections of society including the government responsible for this lack of required response.”

At the same time, Gen Baloch quickly added that there was no dearth of funds.

“Even if the government doesn’t get outside help, we on our own can meet their needs. But, the need of the hour is to make them [IDPs] realise that the entire nation is feeling their pain.”

The country has already suffered immensely because of Taliban’s acts of terrorism.

The Zarb-i-Azb is the largest operation launched yet by the military in tribal areas and if it failed to achieve desired results the extent of blowback will be unthinkable.

“Therefore, regardless of our political affiliations all of us have to do our bit to make the operation a resounding success to prove to the world that Pakistan is now a safe country,” the minister said.

Because of the current fragile law and order situation, he said, the country’s own businessmen were shy of making investments, and, therefore, the government could not persuade foreign investors to invest in the country.

Answering a question, the minister said that no-objection certificates had been issued to 70 per cent of foreign-funded non-governmental organisations who had applied for permission to provide relief to the displaced people.

The government has so far registered around one million IDPs and Nadra, in collaboration with other government agencies, is verifying the registered families because there have been cases of more than one male member of a family having claimed to be heads of independent households.

“The verification process has so far shown that some 50,000 IDPs have been doubly registered,” the minister said.

The minister said that because educational institutions would be opening after Eid, therefore, a survey was under way to determine the number of school and college buildings where displaced families had taken refuge.

“In the first place families will be asked to move to camps or to places of their choice. Also, the government will ensure that additional arrangements are made where necessary to accommodate school-going students,” the minister said.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2014