Govt to meet all requirements of IDPs, says Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD: In order to avoid donors’ fatigue, Pakistan will not make any formal request to multilateral or bilateral donors for seeking financial assistance to help over half a million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the wake of ongoing military operation in North Waziristan Agency (NWA).

Instead of seeking donors’ assistance, the government has decided to meet all requirements of IDPs through its own domestic resources.“Without seeking formal request to the donors, assistance of the multilateral and bilateral creditors and friends will be welcomed,” added the sources.

Pakistan’s military has launched operation against Taliban and their supporters to flush them out from NWA region that caused displacement of over half a million IDPs in Bannu area.“The government has taken the decision in principle that it will meet all requirements of IDPs from its own resources and formal request to donors’ assistance will not be sought. We have so far provided over Rs 2 billion and will also meet upcoming requirements.

The government has deducted one day salary of all public sector employees getting salary from federal budget that generated more than Rs 350 million,” official sources confirmed to The News here on Monday.

When contacted to Federal Minister for Finance and Revenues, Ishaq Dar confirmed to The News on Monday that the government was meeting all requirements would continue it for all IDPs in future as well.

However, high-ups in Finance Ministry told this scribe that the government so far released over Rs 2 billion for IDPs and more resources would be earmarked to meet their requirements.“We have also met financial requirements of Armed Forces to conduct this operation and will also meet the financial requirements for IDPs,” said the official.

So far 572,529 people, belonging to 44,633 families have been registered as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a result of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which started on June 15th. The UAE Government has released an assistance of $ 20.5 million for the IDPs on humanitarian grounds, while US has extended an assistance of $ 31 million. Finance Ministry has released Rs. 2 billion so far for providing relief to the IDPs. Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet has approved 60,000 tons of wheat costing Rs. 2.8 billion for distribution among the IDPs.

When inquired why the government was not making formal request through flash appeal of UN for IDPs assistance, the sources said that the government knew about donors’ fatigue keeping in view experience obtained by Islamabad as result of floods in 2010 and 2011.“This decision has been taken at the top level to avoid seeking official help from the donors but if someone comes forward they will be welcomed,” concluded the sources.