Islamabad, Jan 4 (IANS) Claiming that as a front line state in the war against terror it had suffered a lot economically, Pakistan Monday called upon the international community to fulfil its pledges for the relief and rehabilitation of the civilians affected by the military’s anti-Taliban operations in the country’s northwest.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made the remarks while chairing a meeting here to review the progress on the relief and rehabilitation activities for the internally displaced persons (IDPs).

International donors, meeting under the banner of Friends of Pakistan, had last year pledged close to $250 million for rehabilitating a staggering three million refugees who had been displaced by the fighting in the Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The government estimates that a little over half of these pledges have been redeemed.

Separately, the UN has appealed for more than $500 million for the refugees but just under $100 million has been pledged.

With the operations in the Malakand division now over, the military has shifted its focus to the Taliban strongholds in the South Waziristan Agency along the Afghan border.

No reliable figures are available on the number of civilians displaced from this area.