KARACHI: Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has constituted a relief committee for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to be headed by leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah.

The committee will look after the needs of the IDPs and provide all possible help to them including their rehabilitation. Its members are: Khanzada Khan, president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PPP (focal person of the committee from KP); Manzoor Wattoo, president of the Punjab PPP, Sadiq Umrani, president of the Balochistan PPP; Zamurd Khan, ex-MNA (focal person of the committee from Punjab); Sindh Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Mandharo, Senator Usman Saifullah Khan, Senator Rubina Khalid and Nawazish Pirzada (president of the PYO, south Punjab).

A notification in this regard was issued on Tuesday by Hasham Riaz Sheikh, chief of the staff to the PPP chairman.

Mr Zardari-Bhutto advised Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chaudhry Abdul Majeed and chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah to support the committee in ensuring best possible relief and rehabilitation to the IDPs.

Related: CM announces Rs50m for IDPs’ relief, welcomes them into Sindh

Meanwhile, Mr Bhutto-Zardari after consultation with senior party leaders announced that all senators and lawmakers of the PPP would donate one-month salary for the IDPs. He requested all party office-bearers and workers to assist IDPs. “The IDPs are our heroes who are undergoing untold sufferings and miseries in the nation’s drive against militants and they must not be left alone in their hour of need,” he said, asking other political parties to join hands for the stability and protection of country.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2014