PESHAWAR, Oct 21: The international community has pledged $300 million as humanitarian assistance to new Afghan refugees to be settled in the NWFP and federally-administered tribal areas (Fata), official sources told Dawn on Sunday.

“We are expecting to have the funds shortly in line with   the pledges several countries made recently in an anticipation   of humanitarian crisis inside Afghanistan”, said a senior officer of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR), Peshawar.

The $300 million funds, pledged partly by the European Commission and Japanese, British, Canadian and UAE governments, would be meant for the refugees to be accommodated in the new camps being set up in the NWFP and Fata.

Though the funds had not been released by the countries that made pledges to support the refugees’ settlement in Pakistan,   authorities concerned at Peshawar expected that the promised funds would start getting released once the new camps became functional and the refugees were settled there.

The pledged amount, said the sources, would form a part of the overall funding being promised to the government of Pakistan   as a goodwill gesture towards its resolve to take more refugees   from Afghanistan.

“In the longer run, we are expecting between $700 million and $800 million for taking care of new refugees only in the NWFP   and Fata”, said the CAR official.

According to the sources, in view of the greater role the refugee body [CAR] is going to have in the days to come to take care of the new refugees, SAFRON has also approved an up-gradation plan of the CAR.

In line with the approved plan, six agency administrators have recently been appointed by the CAR — one each for Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies in Fata, where majority of the new camps would be set up in accordance with an agreement between the government of the NWFP and the UNHCR. Similarly, five area administrators have also been appointed.  

“All these officers, six agency administrators and five area administrators, have been appointed by the NWFP government from among its officers”, said a senior official.

Besides, as per the government’s plan to up-grade the CAR, some 250 employees of different categories and ranks would shortly be inducted to improve the working capacity of the provincial refugee body.

Some 16,000 people have applied for a total of 250 posts already advertised by the CAR. The staff would be recruited   for the posts of village administrators, account officers,   liaison officers, junior and senior clerks, inspectors and sub-inspectors security, steno typists and drivers.

“Recruitment of the staff would be finalized in a week’s   time to help CAR get ready for the bigger role it is likely   to play amidst increasing number of refugees the NWFP is   receiving every day”, said the official.