Rs100B to be spent annually on Fata

islamabad — Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt-Gen. (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch on Friday informed the Senate that Rs100 billion would be spent per annum for next 10 years in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata) to bring it into mainstream.

Responding to various supplementary questions in the House, the minister said that it was a lengthy process and would take 10 years to bring Fata at par with other areas.

He said compensation of Rs400,000 each was being paid for totally destroyed houses and Rs160,000 each for partially damaged houses in Fata.

He said the damaged properties and the compensation paid to the owners were covered under the Citizen Losses Compensation Programme (CLCP).

As far as CLCP was concerned, Rs13.3 billion has been released by Finance Division so far, he said.

The minister said out of Rs13.3 billion, Rs12.3 billion were released to the Political Administration out of which Rs10.7 billion has been disbursed to the beneficiaries, after conducting proper survey.

The minister said some 4,0005,000 shops were also destroyed in Miran Shah in the military operation and some 2,000 shops were being built to hand over to the affectees. He said compensation was also being paid to the owners of the shops.

To another question, Baloch said some 3,904 people had lost their lives in terrorists’ attacks while 3,062 were injured in the last five years. He said funds to the tune of Rs331.86 million had been disbursed as compensation to the heirs of victims.

To a question, he said Rs500,000 and Rs300,000 each was being paid to the victims of terrorist attack in KP in Fata respectively. Efforts were being made to end the disparity in compensation amount, he said. To a separate question, the minister that there were two categories of employees working in the Afghan Refugees Organisations including contractual employees paid out of UNHCR funds and Civil Servants paid out of Government budget through AGPR.