President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the government to immediately release Rs 500 million from Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) for emergency relief to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps in the Frontier province.
In a statement issued here President's spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that the President was deeply concerned about the people living in the camps and asked the government to step up the relief work with emphasis on transparency, monitoring and accountability.
"Relief and rehabilitation of the displaced persons is central to this fight", the President said adding, "It is a fight that will be carried to its logical conclusion". The internally displaced persons were the heroes of the war against militancy, he said.
The President directed that the district committees set up during his visit to camps in Shah Mansoor near Swabi on Friday should begin working immediately and that its members should be available to the people round the clock to redress their problems. "Each and every internally displaced family and person will be rehabilitated in their homes with honour and dignity", the president said. The displaced people will not stay in the camps indefinitely and will return to their homes sooner than later and their properties damaged or destroyed by the militants will be repaired and rebuilt by the government, the President said.
The President said that the campaign for seeking international assistance will be boosted during his forthcoming visit to Brussels to ask the EU summit for massive assistance for the relief and rehabilitation operations. He said that the government will continued to be guided by its police of three Ds namely Dialogue, Deterrence and Development as guiding principles in waging war against militancy. This was a policy that had also been endorsed by the national Parliament, he said.
The President reiterated the government's commitment not to allow the militants impose their obscurantism agenda on the people through use of force, bullets and guns. Apart from setting up five district committees the President has already appointed Mohammad Shehzad Arbab, Additional Secretary to the President as focal/contact person in the President's Secretariat to deal with all IDPs matters in the Presidency. Babar said that on Saturday the President also held meetings with the parliamentarians from Malakand and also with the Pakistan American Congress on the issue of relief and rehabilitation of the people living in camps.