LANDI KOTAL: Displaced Kukikhel families on Tuesday rejected their return plan till the fulfillment of their urgent demands like payment of handsome money to help rebuild their houses.

Representatives of different sub tribes of Kukikhel held a jirga in Jamrud in which they demanded immediate provision of tents to the returning families as over 90 per cent of their houses were not fit for living.

On the occasion, Dr Zabita Khan of Mehraban Kallay said their region was already in the grip of cold and it was not possible for most of the returning families to rebuild their damaged houses due to cold weather and want of financial resources.

He demanded immediate execution of a survey so as to ascertain the actual losses incurred by the families. “Most of the families are poor and are in dire need of financial assistance while the Fata Disaster Management Authority has refused to give them cash grants as these families are not registered with them,” he lamented.

Dr Khan said majority of the affected Kukikhel tribesmen were reluctant to go back as they were also refused six months of free ration by FDMA. The official record, he said showed a mere 350 families were registered with authority while the rest of over 12,000 families remained unregistered.

Another elder Malak Noor Zahir said most of Kukikhel families were intentionally kept out of registration at the time of their leaving of home towns in 2012 when militants occupied their personal properties.

MNA Iqbal Afridi also briefly attended the jirga and assured his full support in securing their legitimate rights.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2018