It’s been three weeks since the tribespeople had left their homes and villages due to military operation in North Waziristan, but the government and its various institutions responsible for handling disasters have not been able yet to provide them basic facilities of life.

According to the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA), 37000 families or 500,000 individuals had left North Waziristan after the government launched Zarb-e-Azb against local and foreign militants. Though some of the tribespeople had left their homes and villages before the operation, majority of the people fled the tribal region when the government formally announced the military operation on June 15.

In 2009, around three million were displaced when the government began operation against Maulana Fazlullah and his fighters in the picturesque Swat valley. But the government at that time had arranged shelter and food in tented camps set up in Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda districts.

The local residents of Mardan, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi and Peshawar districts had accommodated most of the uprooted families in their homes and hujras. This time, though the number of IDPs is not very huge as compared to the past, it seems the government was completely ill-prepared to cope with their needs.

Initially when the displaced families started arriving in Bannu, there was no coordination between the civil and military authorities and among various government organisations regarding accommodation of the uprooted families and one would hope they would overcome the situation within a few days.

However, since three weeks had passed, the displaced tribespeople are still facing the similar problems they faced after arriving in Bannu. The government has not yet registered all the displaced people so they can get free ration and cash amount.

Tribal elders in North Waziristan complained that the government had forced tribespeople to leave their native villages and towns by bombing their houses, adding the government failed to provide them food and shelter.

Malik Sher Mohammad Wazir, head of the North Waziristan jirga, complained that thousands of people had not been registered upon their arrival in Bannu. "The people had left all their belongings in Waziristan and came out in panic as the fighter jets were pounding villages. Now it becomes the government’s responsibility to provide them food and shelter," he said.

"We refused to meet the prime minister and attend his official function in Bannu as the government and military officials had asked us to attend the gathering, enjoy the lunch but don’t open your mouth in front of the prime minister," Sher Mohammad Wazir, the head of North Waziristan tribal jirga, told TNS on telephone from Bannu.

Sher Mohammad Wazir said some government officials had earlier assured them that someone from the jirga would be given a chance to talk to the prime minister about the hardships of the internally displaced persons from North Waziristan. "However when elders of our jirga were preparing to draft demands and raise the deplorable condition of the uprooted families in Bannu and other places, senior government officials backed off their commitment," the tribal elder complained.

Sher Mohammad Wazir, grandson of known freedom fighter Mirza Ali Khan alias Faqir of Epi, alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was kept in dark about the whole situation in North Waziristan and the plight of IDPs.

According to the FDMA, out of 37000 displaced families, only 32 of them had agreed to live in the so-called IDPs camp. "There are many reasons behinds reluctance of the people to go to the camp. First, the Pakistan army had set up the camp for the displaced people at a remote FR Bakakhel area, near Mir Ali subdivision of North Waziristan. Second, there is no basic facility for the displaced people," Sher Mohammad Wazir complained.

A senior government official in Bannu, however, argued that people were avoiding the camp due to social constraints. "The main reason they are refusing to live in the government-run camp is the Taliban threat. Taliban had threatened them not to stay in the camp or receive government assistance," the official said.

However, people now wait for hours in long queues at distribution points to get ration and cash amount from the government. "In some places, the residents in Bannu had accommodated the displaced people in their houses and hujras (male guesthouses)," the official said.

The NWA Taliban leader, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, had issued a strong-worded pamphlet before launch of the military operation and asked the people to leave their houses and villages before June 10, as the government was preparing for launching a full-scale military operation in the tribal region. The Taliban commander had forbidden the people from taking shelter at the government-run camps, in case they had to leave their houses and villages.

The government had announced to pay each family Rs7000 a month and Rs5000 for non-food items on their arrival in Bannu. Majority of the people had not received even a penny so far due to failure of the government to register them first.

According to a senior government official, who pleaded anonymity, cash payment to the IDPS had been started. He said 27000 families had been paid cash amount so far. He, however, admitted lack of coordination among the government departments.

"Look, first it is the military which has been handling the IDPs. Then there is Safron, FDMA and PDMA. No body knows who is doing what," the official said.

Despite tall claims of the rulers, the tribesmen are not satisfied. "Like me, hundreds of other people come in the morning, stand in queues, wait for registration and then officials tell us the time is over and come tomorrow," complained Waheedullah Khan, a resident of Khushali village in Mir Ali.

Most of the tribesmen said they didn’t know why the government has chosen the hot weather and the holy month of Ramazan for launching the long-awaited military operation in North Waziristan. "It seemed the government was not prepared mentally for the operation but it was imposed on it by some powerful quarters," said Wali Khan, a bank manager by profession. Like other tribesmen, the white-bearded Wali Khan also left his native Khadi village in Mir Ali and has shifted his family to Bannu.

Abdul Wahid, a resident of Hasukhel village in Mir Ali, said it took him and his seven-member family to travel the 37-kilometre distance between Mir Ali and Bannu in eight hours, apparently due to heavy rush of the panicked tribes people and insufficient arrangements. "After leaving home at 6am in the morning, we and thousands of others were forced to wait in vehicles under the sizzling sun for six hours for our turn to cross the check-post.

Khair Mohammad, 48, a farmer, was very critical of the government and armed forces for targeting residential areas in North Waziristan. Belonging to Khushali village in Mir Ali subdivision, he shifted 20 members of his family in a tractor trolley. "It would have been better had the government used atomic bomb and killed all of us at home," Khair Mohammad remarked.

He said the Mehsud Taliban had disappeared but local militants affiliated with Hafiz Gul Bahadur were still roaming in the villages. "The security forces started blowing up all houses in Mir Ali where militants of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had stayed. But the militants mysteriously disappeared along with their families and had either gone to Shawal valley in North Waziristan or Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency," Khair Mohammad said.