PESHAWAR: PTI MNA Ayesha Gulalai Wazir on Monday complained about the delay in the rehabilitation of internally displaced persons from Fata and urged the federal government and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to include a separate column for them in the form for national house and population census saying around two-thirds of the tribal people have been living in settled areas of the country since displacement years ago.

Ms Gulalai told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that most of the displaced families from Fata lived in settled areas of the country but the federal government didn’t take effective steps for their early rehabilitation.

She said the government had launched the national population census on the basis of where the people lived either permanently or temporarily, and since most Fata people were displaced, the census would help project their problems and the ground realities of tribal areas.

Accompanied by tribal elders from various Fata agencies, including Haji Shakirullah Afridi, Malik Hussain Khan, Haji Saifullah Khan, Haji Zahir, Abdul Ali, Gohar Rehman, Ghafoor Ahmad and Inayatullah Haq, the lawmaker said Fata people were not satisfied with the way in which the entire exercise of population census was being carried out.

PTI MNA insists around two-thirds of Fata people live in country’s settled areas

She said the absence of columns for Sikhs, transgender persons and people with disabilities had exposed the government’s poor arrangements for the house and population census launched after a gap of 19 years.

Ms Gulalai said if IDPs were not registered in own hometowns, the census wouldn’t benefit them in light of the distribution of national resources and funds on the basis of population as most tribal people currently lived in different parts of the country.

She said the census on temporary residence basis and without a permanent address would deprive Fata people of basic constitutional rights and that in future, they wouldn’t be able to raise voice for due share in resources.

The MNA said the way in which the census was being carried out would also adversely affect Fata’s share in the National Finance Commission Award and National and provincial assembly seats as more than 70 per cent of Fata people don’t live in their hometowns at the moment.

She said the tribesmen had rendered matchless sacrifices for the country, which should not be ignored in the census.

Ms Gulalai demanded the inclusion of a column for IDPs or the consideration of their permanent address in the population census to protect Fata’s due share in national resources, federal divisible pool and National Finance Commission Award.

She also resented the delay in implementation of Fata reforms package and declared it a conspiracy meant to keep tribal people backward.

The MNA said it was unfortunate that no concrete plan had been devised for the rehabilitation of Fata IDPs.

She regretted that around 400,000 IDPs had returned to their hometowns as shown in government documents but compensation package had yet to be announced for the militancy-affected families of semi-tribal Kurram Agency.

Ms Gulalai criticised the federal government and Fata secretariat for not fulfilling duties regarding the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure in Fata.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2017