ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: A parliamentary committee urged the government on Monday to release the funds amounting to Rs860 million announced by the government for the rehabilitation of the displaced people of Kurram Agency.

The political agent of the agency informed a meeting of the National Assembly’s standing committee on states and frontier regions (Safron) the then prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had sanctioned Rs1.86 billion for the rehabilitation of people displaced by military operations and sectarian conflicts in the area.

An amount of Rs1 billion was released in the 2010-11 financial year but the remaining Rs860 million was not paid yet, the meeting presided over by chairman Sajid Hussain Turi was informed.

The political agent said that 4,239 houses were destroyed and 1,329 damaged during sectarian clashes in the Kurram Agency.

Safron Minister Engineer Shaukatullah and MNAs Jawwad Hussain, Tariq Khattak, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Mir Ahmadan Khan Bugti, Imrana Saeed Jamil, Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch and Maulvi Asmatullah attended the meeting.