ISLAMABAD: The government has put the official figure of internally displaced persons (IDPs) at 566,000 and claimed that they are being taken care of quite well.

At a high-level meeting held here on Friday, Minister of States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Qadir Baloch briefed the prime minister on matters relating to people displaced from North Waziristan after the military launched an operation against militants in the middle of last month.

He said that 566,000 people had been registered as IDPs at various registration points till Thursday. “Camps are being managed well with uninterrupted supply of electricity,” the minister was quoted as saying in an official statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Gen Baloch said that polio vaccination was being effectively administered to the internally displaced persons, cash distribution made in a transparent manner and from July 8 onward the payment would be made through mobile cash transfers.

The prime minister said: “For us helping our people displaced because of (military operation) Zarb-i-Azb is number one issue and we will do our level best to help them. We will make sure that after the operation displaced persons are brought back and rehabilitated with honour.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th , 2014