North Waziristan IDPs await registration in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Majority of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arriving in Peshawar from North Waziristan are still awaiting formal registration. Scores of tribesmen residing in areas of Hayatabad Township complained that teams set up for mobile registration purpose were missing for the past three days. Muhammad Hafeez, an affectee, said Governor Khyber Pakhtukhawa Sardar Mehtab Ahmed had formed a team for mobile registration of North Waziristan affectees but the team did not arrive for the purpose. “We have been waiting for the last two days daily in Phase 6 at a house to facilitate the affectees but no one is coming to them since Thursday,” Hafeez said, adding that they were forced to sit in the scorching heat. Ihsan, another displaced person from the North Waziristan Agency, said that tribesmen who arrived after a tiresome journey were undergoing severe mental stress as on one hand, they were not being registered while on the other hand, law enforcement agencies were also harassing them. He said that the registration process should be expedited so that affectees would not only have proper legal cover to live peacefully but would also be able to garner assistance from the government. He said that the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) had not sent out its team for registration despite repeated requests, lamenting that “some times they display concern while other times they make excuses."