PESHAWAR, March 7: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday informed the Peshawar High Court that it would make polling arrangements for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from tribal areas in the general elections in accordance with the order of the court.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mrs Irshad Qaiser was told by ECP Director (Legal) Abdur Rehman Khan that the commission had decided with consensus to fully implement the order of the court and it would make arrangements for IDPs to cast their votes in the elections at Jalozai IDP Camp and other places.

He said ECP had also asked the federal government that if required, it should make amendments in the relevant laws for that purpose.

The bench observed that there was no legal hindrance in setting up polling stations for IDPs outside their area as no law prohibited that in case of unrest or war polling station should be established outside the constituency.

The chief justice had taken suo moto notice of the issues related to IDPs in April last year and had issued several directives to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and subsequently to Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) to provide all the required facilities to IDPs at Jalozai Camp till their return to area of their origin when the operation was stopped and peace restored.

A few weeks ago, the court had issued directives to ECP to make polling arrangements for IDPs in their camps during the elections.

On Thursday, the bench also expressed concern over the tension between federal and provincial government over provisions of funds for looking after IDPs.

However, the chief coordinator of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Faiz Mohammad Khan, said they had no tension with the federal government and all of them had jointly been trying to address the issues faced by the IDPs.

The official informed that recently there was an issue regarding reduction of food to IDPs, but the federal and provincial governments had provided 75,000 metric tons of wheat to the World Food Program (WFP) in this regard. He added that they had certain problems with the federal government regarding payment of electricity bills, but now the government had paid around Rs100 million on that account.

Before his assertions the bench observed that the finance division in its written reply had stated that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had been paid one percent from the divisible pool each year under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award since 2010 on account of war on terror and the same should be spent on the IDPs.

The chief justice observed that giving break-up of the amount released under that head the finance division stated that in the financial year 2010-11 around Rs14.55 billion was released; in financial year 2011-12 Rs16.405 billion were released; and Rs9.29 billion were released so far in the year 2012-13. Malik Mujtaba, lawyer for Fata Secretariat, endorsed the finance division’s statement.

The chief justice observed that it was regrettable that the two governments had been wrangling over the issue of who was to look after IDPs.

He added that these people were victim of conflict and were forced to leave their residences, but the government had still not been clear about their status.