ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly panel, on Thursday, asked the federal government to make all arrangements with the Afghan government to bring back Pakistani nationals who migrated to Afghanistan from North Waziristan during the operation Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), which met with Sajid Khan in the chair, discussed the matter related to repatriation and rehabilitation of the people of North Waziristan who migrated to Afghanistan.
The matter was moved by Mohsin Dawar in the National Assembly.
On this, the DG Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sharif Hussain informed the committee that all arrangements for rehabilitation of the IDPs completed at their end as and when the government brings back the IDPs from Afghanistan.
The committee recommended to the federal government to constitute a high-level committee to take up this issue with the Afghan government, and make all arrangements for their repatriation to Pakistan.
Mohsin Dawar told the committee that hundreds of families had migrated to bordering Afghanistan when the operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched against the militants in his constituency, who are now facing hardships in returning to their homes.
The committee also discussed the issue of non-payment of relief package to the registered 2,200 families of Sraghar, Jandola, and ex-Frontier Region [FR] Tank who made IDPs due to operation Rah-e-Nijat against the militants in South Waziristan.
The matter was moved by Mufti Abdul Shakoor in the National Assembly.
The director general informed the Committee while briefing on the said issue that the FR Tank area of Jandola/Surghar was also affected by the operations.
He further said there demand for housing survey cannot be entertained as Citizen Losses Compensation Program (CLCP) is designed only for five tribal districts namely Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North and South Waziristan, and no Frontier Region (FR) have been included in the program.
Whereupon, the committee recommended to the federal and provincial governments to sit together and resolve the issue, by including the FR Tank in the CLCP programme.
The committee also discussed the allocation of seats in medical and dental colleges for students belonging to erstwhile FATA and Balochistan, and voiced its serious concerns regarding non-implementation of the recommendations of the Standing Committees of both the houses of the Parliament with regards to allocation of seats in medical and dental colleges for students of ex-FATA and Balochistan.
The committee members expressed serious concerns on the lack of implementation on the recommendations of the Standing Committees of both, the National Assembly and the Senate on SAFRON, despite repeated directions issued to the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to ensure allocation of seats to students belonging to ex-Fata as well as Balochistan in the public-sector medical and dental colleges.
The committee directed the PMC and the HEC to resolve the issue of admission on the patron adopted last year within a week and also extend date of admission announced by the PMC, the 25th February, 2021 till the resolution of the admission issue of Balochistan and FATA students and report back to the panel accordingly.
The committee also expressed its displeasure on establishment of veterinary hospitals in District Bajaur on unsuitable places, and directed the DG Livestock, KP to consult the public representatives whenever going for establishing any veterinary hospital or other livestock programme in their constituencies.
The meeting was attended by Shahid Ahmad, Gul Dad Khan, Gul Zafar Khan, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Aliya Hamza Malik, Nawabzada Shah Zain Bughti, Muhammad Afzal Khokhar, Sajid Hussain Turi, Muhammad Jamalud Din, Mohsin Dawar, and Mufti Abdul Shakoor, and officers from the ministry and the concerned departments.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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