PESHAWAR: The Fata Disaster Management Authority has deregistered 63,297 internally displaced families since March 2015 following their refusal to return to their homes in five Fata agencies.
\nThese figures come out as the population census began across the country.
\nOfficials said enumerators would struggle to carry out the house listing when families were away.
\nThey said there were a variety of reasons like unavailability of health and educational facilities, unemployment and shortage of other basic needs, which discouraged the Fata people from returning.
\nFDMA assistant director (operations and relief) MianAdilZahoor said a majority of Fata families became displaced in 2008 who had socially and economically integrated in the settled areas of the country.
\n\u201cThis may be one of the reasons,\u201d he said.
\nThe official said the tribal areas had been cleared of militants but the displaced families did not return.
\nHe said the IDPs\u2019 deregistration process began in Jan 2015 and that a total of 63,297 displaced families had so far been deregistered.
\nMr. Zahoor said the government had made a policy to remove from the \u2018system\u2019 the names of those, who did not return despite the fact that their respective areas were cleared. He said the provision of food rations to such families was stopped after deregistration.
\nThe displacement of civilians from tribal area began from Bajaur Agency when security forces launched the SherDil (lion\u2019s heart) operation against militants there in August 2008. Lawlessness and military operations forced millions of Fata people to flee to settled parts of the country.
\nAnother official dealing with the reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in Fata, told Dawn that the tribesmen didn\u2019t return to their homes as basic needs of life didn\u2019t exist there.
\n\u201cLife is very tough. It becomes very difficult to stay without basic facilities. No school, no health, no shelter and no drinking water. What they (returning IDPs) will do there,\u201d he said.
\nThe official said many families had returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab after getting the Watan Cards due to the shortage of basic facilities in hometowns.
\nThe decision about the IDPs\u2019 deregistration was made during a meeting held in Peshawar last January.
\nKP Governor IqbalZafarJhagra had chaired the meeting in which the FDMA was directed to cancel the registration of displaced families reluctant to return.
\nThe FDMA, which oversees the repatriation of IDPs, has deregistered 25,832 families in North Waziristan Agency.
\nAccording to the details, 4,490 families have declined to return to South Waziristan Agency, 4,646 to Khyber Agency, 16,977 to Orakzai Agency and 11,352 to Kurram Agency.
\nThe FDMA said 90 per cent of the displaced persons\u2019 return had been completed and that a total of 205,922 families had gone back to those five agencies.
\nThe government has planned to complete the repatriation of IDPs by the end of April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: The Fata Disaster Management Authority has deregistered 63,297 internally displaced families since March 2015 following their refusal to return to their homes in five Fata agencies. These figures come out as the population census began across the country. Officials said enumerators would struggle to carry out the house listing when families were away. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n