NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has directed the Afghan Refugees Commissioner to prepare a report on the assets of vacated refugees' camps, which included tents and vehicles.
He further said that new refugees camps established after 9/11 would be winded up to August 30.
Akram Durrani has called for a detailed report on tube wells in the camps which had cost millions of rupees. He also enquired about the Korean mobile health units, which had been given to tribal areas.
The Chief Minister issued these directives at a briefing on refugees here at the Frontier House Peshawar on Saturday.
Afghan Refugees Commissioner Jamshed ul Hassan gave the briefing while Chief Secretary Ijaz Ahmad Qureshi and Home Secretary Abdul Karim Kasoria were also present on the occasion.
The Chief Minister said that the equipments of the vacated afghan refugees' camps should be utilized for the welfare of the people. He said those equipment could be used in education and health sectors. Because of non-availability of latest medical equipment, the people of backward districts had been deprived of health facilities.
The chief minister said that Rs 2.2 million was the cost on installation of tube-well but the tube-wells installed in refugees' camps had cost Rs 6.5 million each.
Expressing anguish over wastage of resources, the chief minister directed to prepare a detailed report on the tube-wells and said that work on those tube-wells should be stopped immediately.
Durrani directed that aid and ration should be provided to repatriating Afghan refugees' families near Pak-Afghan border and the quantity of the aid should be increased so that the refugees could adjust themselves in Afghanistan.
Increase in aid would decrease the return ratio of Afghan refugees to Pakistan. He also stressed on the effectiveness of identity system of repatriating refugees.
The Chief Minister said the MMA government had established Darul Kafala and other rehabilitation centres to make the drug addicts and beggar useful citizens. He said that majority of the inmates of those centres were Afghan refugees and the Afghan refugees' Commissionerate should allocate a handsome amount for those centres.
He said a large numbers of afghan refugees were also in jails for which jail reforms undertaken, the CM said.
Earlier, Afghan Refugees Commissioner Jamshedul Hassan briefed the Chief Minister about the administrative structure and activities of the Commissionerate. He said that Commissionerate, government of Pakistan and UNHCR were engaged in the registration of refugees and participation of refugees in the forthcoming elections will be ensured.
Giving details of the refugees, the chief minister said that in NWFP there were 32 refugees' camps with eight lac registered afghan refugees while in tribal areas there were 17 camps with 2,42,823 refugees. He said that after 9/11 new refugees camps had been established which would be winded up to 30th August 2004.
He added that refugees residing in these camps would be sent back to Afghanistan or shifted to old camps.
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