PESHAWAR/PARACHINAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Fata Civil Secretariat will formulate guidelines to facilitate international and national non-governmental organisations to carry out activities in the disaster-hit areas of the province and adjoining tribal region.

This was decided during a meeting chaired here by relief, rehabilitation and settlement secretary Tariq Rasheed and attended by senior officials of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Fata Disaster Management Authority and the army on Tuesday.

According to an official statement issued here, the participants discussed repatriation of Fata internally displaced persons and issuance of no-objection certificates to various national and international NGOs and foreign donors to work in the region.

The meeting was informed that a joint task force including members of FDMA would announce schedule for the return of around 700 displaced families to Orakzai Agency today (Wednesday).

Officials discuss repatriation of IDPs, issuance of NOCs to non-governmental organisations

Currently, 1,070 displaced persons live at Togh Serai Camp in Hangu district and 700 of them will be sent back to their homes within a month.

The law-enforcement agencies have already de-notified cleared areas as conflict zones after flushing out miscreants.

The remaining 300 families will be either relocated to New Durrani Camp in Kurram Agency or Jalozai camp in Nowshera district near Peshawar.

An official said the remaining 300 families might be repatriated if security officials declared their native villages safe.

A proposal is under consideration to close Togh Serai Camp because the government had stopped access to workers of UN agencies and its partners to the camp owing to security reasons.

The UN agencies have already decided to wind up activities in the camp by the end of December next.

The meeting was informed that 1300 displaced families were currently living at Jalozai Camp. The site has almost deserted, because of large scale return of IDPs of Khyber Agency to their homes.

The issue of issuing NOC to INGOs and NGOs also came under discussion. It was decided that PDMA and FDMA would prepare mechanism for allowing INGOs and NGO to execute rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in natural disaster-affected and conflict stricken areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

A committee comprising civil and military officers will decide whether to issue NOC to relief agency or NGO to start rehabilitation activities in affected areas.

An official said the current process of issuing NOC to relief organisations was very lengthy as result many bodies had shifted their activities to other provinces.

He said several INGOs had abandoned their activities since federal government placed ban on their activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

The official said the provincial government and management in Fata would make process of NOC simple.

EVICTED FAMILIES RETURN: Around 45 Shia families evicted from Sadda some 30 years ago have returned to their native town in Sadda to resettle there.

The returnees were warmly received by the local people.

On the occasion, Kurram Agency political agent Amjad Ali Khan said displaced families had reached Khewas, Tangi and Narry areas, while repatriation of evacuated Sunni families to Parachinar would begin soon.

APA Shahid Ali Khan told reporters that the tribesmen had to flee homes due to lawlessness and military operation against militants.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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