People of lower Swat to start returning after 15th: Minister

PESHAWAR: Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Najamuddin Khan has said the people of upper Swat are returning home and those belonging to lower parts of the district will start going back to their areas after July 15.

He said residents of Madyan, Behrain and Kalam villages had started going back to their areas and those belonging to Kabal, Matta and Barikot would also start returning after a week.

Speaking at a press conference at the Afghan commissionerate here on Tuesday, the minister said the NWFP government, in coordination with the federal government and the UNHCR, would continue supporting the affected people during reconstruction and repatriation process.

He said more than 50,000 smart cards through which financial aid was provided had been distributed among internally displaced people. He said work had been started on restoring civic services in the conflict zone.

The minister said parliamentarians from Malakand would propose declaration of the division as a calamity-hit area to properly compensate for the destruction and devastation caused by militants.

He maintained that the Afghan commissionerate had contributed to the relief efforts by establishing four camps in Lower Dir for displaced people.

The minister said there was complete coordination between federal and provincial governments and the army about the modalities of the return of the people of Malakand, but the announcement about the repatriation and reconstruction process would be made by the provincial government.

He also said the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation would be implemented in letter and sprit. Asked about the repatriation process of Afghan refugees, the minister said there were about 1.7 million registered and more than one million unregistered Afghans in Pakistan and the government had repatriated 27,000 refugees since April 15 with the support of the UNHCR.

A cabinet committee of the federal government, he said, was considering ways and means for partnership with the UNHCR to repatriate the registered Afghan refugees.

He said the United Nations had also agreed to provide $140 million under the Rehabilitation of Hosting Area Programme to compensate for the negative effect of the refugees on the infrastructure in Pakistan.