The situation is deteriorating for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region. According to government sources more than 500,000 people have migrated from Waziristan to different parts of the country after army operations in the region. Most of the people who migrated from Waziristan are poor and some of them walked for two or three days to reach Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan because of a lack of transportation and the curfew restrictions in the area.Women and children are the worst affected, and several children have lost their lives due to a lack of medical facilities. The extreme summer weather has added further difficulty to their journey. Now due to a lack of facilities, these IDPs find it hard to provide food and shelter for their families. Local media are showing depressing pictures of these events. People are forced to stand for long hours outside government assistance centers. There are only a few NGOs working in the area with limited resources, and instead of providing help to these displaced people, political parties in Pakistan continue to fight with each other. Khawaja Umer Farooq, Jeddah
