PESHAWAR: There was a complete mismanagement and chaos at a point opened at Pajagi Road in Peshawar for the registration of displaced persons from the troubled Orakzai Agency, as the officials were invisible, forms unavailable and the process later halted.
The fresh drive for registration was launched at a time when the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from different volatile tribal areas hit 1.3 million. However, this huge displacement could not get government and international community’s attention like those from Malakand division.
The baffled and helpless IDPs protested and blocked the Pajagi Road but the locals forced them to open the road at gunpoint. A clash was narrowly averted when the displaced people returned. This risk of a clash was caused by the inability of the relevant government departments to make proper arrangements for the registration to avoid mismanagement and chaos.
There was also a complete disorder at the point, established in centre for rehabilitation of the paralysed people, as the government had not deputed police or other security officials thereof. “Police officials came here but returned after a few minutes without assigning any reason. They told us to arrange security ourselves. Now you can see the disorder. We do registration or discipline them,” said Assistant Coordinator Social Welfare Mazhar Durrani.
It was observed the registration was not taking place for one hour at the centre on Monday, the first day of registration. The people seeking registration did not know what to do. They were desperate to get enlisted but were not being registered. Some of the displaced persons went unruly and were kicking the doors to force their entry.
“Officials doing registration here told us that the weather was too hot and they couldn’t continue it,” said Muhammad Nadeem, hailing from Ferozkhel area of Orakzai “Should we arrange fans or air-conditioners for them?”
But Mazhar said it was untrue. He argued that actually they had run out of forms. “We had only 200 forms and ran out of it shortly after starting the registration. I have sent some officials who will soon bring along the forms,” he explained.
To a question, he said they were not understaffed. “I think three persons are enough to handle registration but due to the disorder you see outside, the nine staff members can’t manage it,” he argued.
An angry young man, Asghar Khan, said there was no staff and they were just wasting people’s time. He claimed most of the people — about 400,000 million — had moved out from the troubled Orakzai but complained they were running from pillar to post to get registered. “We and many more are still unregistered.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), the number of uprooted persons from Orakzai and the neighbouring Kurram agencies has reached 197,667. It said the uprooted people from Orakzai constituted 71 per cent of the total number.
The intensifying fighting in Orakzai Agency has escalated displacement as thousands of residents of the troubled agency continued to move to safer places. “I fled Bizot area in Orakzai four days ago due to severe shelling and am now living in Sro Killay in a rented house for Rs400,” said Ahmad Khan.
The man who said he was unemployed complained the authorities had refused to register him. Ahmad said he had old national identity card and token for a computerised one but they did not accept it. “Please ensure my registration,” the poor man said, hoping this scribe could help him enlist as IDP.
The authorities have said both new and old NIC were valid documents for the registration. The OCHA said 800 families were being registered on daily basis in Hangu and Kohat districts. There is only one camp for the IDPs in Muhammad Khwaja in Hangu, housing only 3,630 persons.
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