PESHAWAR: The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Unit has refused to conduct a survey of the damaged houses in Central Kurram, which the internally displaced persons had rebuilt on their own after return to native areas in 2012.

The elders complained that thousands of internally displaced families, who had returned to their homes in Central Kurram, had neither received Rs25,000 cash assistance paid to IDPs of other tribal agencies nor had they received compensation for their damaged houses.

“This is shrewd discrimination with the people of Central Kurram. The IDPs from other tribal agencies have been paid Rs25,000 cash grant on return to their homes and Rs400,000 and Rs160,000 for completely and partially damaged houses respectively,” said Pathan Abdul Khaliq, who belongs to Musazai tribe.

Mr Pathan said of the total 22,000 displaced families, who returned to the area lately, only 4,000 had received Rs25,000 cash grant from the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA).

The federal government had initiated Citizen Losses Compensation Programme (CLCP) to give cash compensation to militancy affected people of five tribal agencies including Central Kurram for their damaged residential units.

Authorities seek pictures, videos of damaged houses

Mian Adil Zahoor, assistant director (operations and relief) at the FDMA, said complaints and grievances of the people of Central Kurram were genuine as they had received neither Rs25,000 cash grant nor compensation for their losses.

The civilians were ordered to leave the area in 2009 when militants swept through Central Kurram, adjacent to the Afghanistan’s troubled Nangarhar province. Several people were killed in clashes with the militants. Thousands of houses were burned down. IDPs were shifted to camps in Kurram and Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Pakistan Army launched operation Koh-i-Sufaid (White Mountain) in 2010 to secure the area from militants. Following the formal end of the offensive, the government planned the partial return of IDPs to the area in 2012. Over 2500 families hailing from different tribes were relocated to the area.

The officials, who planned the IDPs’ return to Central Kurram, admitted that the area was inhabitable keeping in view the scope of destruction.

Central Kurram is one of the most under developed parts of Fata where people have no access to health, education and other basic facilities.

“The challenges were immense for those returning to Central Kurram, the FDMA and the aid agencies. We did not find a single house which was in good condition or fit for living,” said an official, who visited the area many times before and after the return of IDPs.

“There were only ruins all around and major challenge was how to protect people, especially children from tough weather,” he said, adding that the UN agencies provided construction material and cash grant to the returnees that was enough for constructing single room. The official said the UN partners had built basic health units and provided staff members with other facilities.

He said the UN partners ran those units for one year and handed them over to the government.

“This is not the INGOs’ job to operate such facilities forever. The government has to do something,” he said.

Local elder Malik Qasim told Dawn that following the voluntary return of over 2,500 displaced families to Central Kurram in 2012, the FDMA officials asked returnees to repair and reconstruct houses on their own and the FDMA would reimburse money once it got funds from the federal government.

He said after the complete return of IDPs to the area, the authorities began a survey of damaged houses in the last quarter of 2017 to recommend compensation for the affected tribesmen under the CLCP.

The elder said the survey of the damaged properties was conducted at that time and all damaged houses were enlisted.

“The authorities have now refused to include rebuilt houses in the CLCP survey and asked the affected people to provide credible evidence, including photographs and videos of the damaged houses, to prove their claims,” he said.

Malik Qasim said it was the responsibility of the FDMA and local administration to preserve credible evidence of the damaged properties before relocating people to the area. Pathan Abdul Khaliq said survey teams were just fulfilling formalities and had declined to cover the houses rebuilt by the people.

He said elders had proposed the authorities get the images of the area from Google Earth.

“The Google images of the pre-2012 area will be sufficient to resolve this issue,” he said, adding that it was not possible for the poor helpless people to get digital images to claim compensation.

When approached, RRU project manager Shakeel Iqbal said the steering committee headed by the political agent had the mandate to recommend or reject a house for payment under the CLCP.

“The RRU has no objection if the political agent concerned approves a case for compensation,” he said.

Mr Iqbal said some displaced families had received Rs70,000 from the UN agencies to build one room in Central Kurram.

Political agent of Kurram Agency Baseer Khan was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2018