ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Lt General Abdul Qadir Baloch Tuesday informed the National Assembly that 80 per cent Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs) of Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) had returned to their native areas while remaining 20 per cent would be sent back by April 30.
Responding to a Calling Attention notice raised by Muhammad Jamal-ud Din and others regarding non-inclusion of a column for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of South Waziristan, the minister said it was decided with the consensus of tribal people that they would be given cash for rehabilitation and re-construction of their houses.
However, he conceded that there should be an extra column for TDPs in the census form. He said mostly people were displaced from South and North Waziristan.
Abdul Qadir said that various political parties in Balochistan had also made similar demand as mostly people have shifted to other parts of the country due to insurgency in some parts of the province.
Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Revenue Rana Muhammad Afzal apprised the House that all the provincial governments were on board and census was going to be started in next few days.
He said the status of TDPs has ended by December 31, 2016 and now their status was an economic migrant.
He said international rules were being followed in the census and no one would be missed out in it.
He said every Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) holder has linkage of his/her district.
