ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi on Monday said the state was actively taking steps to provide a ‘healing touch’ to the people of tribal areas, who had been badly affected during the war against terrorism.

He was chairing a meeting here on addressing issues facing the people of North and South Waziristan. The MNAs backed by the Pashtun Taha­ffuz Move­ment, Moh­sin Dawar and Ali Wazir, also attended the meeting and briefed the minister on various problems being fac­ed by the people of the area.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has always supported the demands of the tribal people and while we are in power, we will make sure that the people here are ser­ved. No complacency will be tolerated in this regard,” the minister said, adding that the federal government wou­ld protect and promote the rights of people and all state institutions would faci­litate the mainstreaming of tribal people without any delay.

Additional secretaries of the interior ministry Tariq Sardar and Abdul Aziz Uqaili, the director general of passports, Nadra chairman and other officials of the ministry were present.

Mr Afridi informed the meeting that Nadra had cleared blocked CNICs of around 180,000 people, while the cases of the rest of 155,000 blocked CNICs were being looked into.

Directing Nadra and pass­ports & immigration offici­a­­ls to immediately set up mob­ile offices in North and South Waziristan, Mr Afridi said all recruitments should be local, employing the you­th of the area. He also instructed that it must be ensured that female em­­ployees from local tribes were recruited to register women.

“I want to make sure that all the ministry departments should serve the people at large, especially those segments that have been igno­r­­ed in the past,” he said. “I wo­u­­ld not compromise upon or tolerate any negative attitude when it comes to serving the masses. All misunde­r­standings should be redre­s­sed through us delivering ra­­­­ther than providing rhetoric.”

He added that all the issues raised by the lawmakers from Waziristan should be resolved as soon as possible. Congratulating the people of Waziristan on the laun­­ch of 3G internet services in Bajaur and other parts of the tribal areas, the minister said the PTI government would not leave any stone unturned in helping develop the underdeveloped areas of the country with a specific focus on Waziristan.

“We owe [much] to the sa­­c­­rifices made by the tribal peo­­­ple who fought all our wars on the frontlines. They guarded our borders when our military was fighting wars. They took the brunt of terrorism. Now it is about time that we build the infrastructure destroyed in the war against terrorism. I ass­ure you that we will do whatever is needed to empower the people of tribal areas,” the minister stated.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2019