LAHORE (PR): The Government of Pakistan is making all out efforts to provide relief to people displaced as a result of military operation in the North Waziristan Agency. Federal Government has started this operation and is mindful of its duty to deliver for people who are getting displaced”, said General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch Federal Minister for SAFRON during a seminar organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on “The worsening IDPs crisis-2014 and Role of Civil Society”. The Minister said that due to confidentiality and as part of security strategy it was not possible to inform the KPK government about the operation Zarb-e-Azab in advance. However, he emphasized that Chief Minister KPK and Commissioner Bannu were on board about relief provision initiatives.
Lamenting on poor state of coordination among different agencies responsible for taking care of IDPs, Dr. Abid Suleri Executive Director of SDPI said that it was not the first time that Pakistan had to cope with the challenge of IDPs.
Pakistan has been living with the crisis of IDPs since 1947. Lately the country took care of IDPs of Earthquake, IDPs of Swat, IDPs of Floods, and IDPs of NW who had been leaving their homes in anticipation of military action.
There are number of institutions at Federal as well as at provincial level to take care of these IDPs. Commenting  on very few number of IDPs in IDP camps, Dr. Suleri said that apart from the fact that the camps are installed in security sensitive area (FR Bannu), those camps are also weather unfriendly and don’t  suit the socio-cultural values of the IDPs.
 In the end, the plight of IDPs reflect the state of governance i.e., who is deciding what, for whom, in which manner, and through which forum etc. Dr. Suleri also highlighted the issue of defunct and banned organizations working as relief provider to IDPs and demanded a strict scrutiny of fund raiser collecting donations for IDPs. He demanded better access of think tanks and civil society organizations in military operation affected areas so that they may guide government and UN agencies on how to improve relief operations through independent analysis. Dr. Suleri also emphasized that there were opportunities in the IDP crisis for eradication of polio in NW through organized vaccination of all registered IDPs.