February 18, 2026
By Islam Gul Afridi
KHYBER
It is early morning, but already a crowd has gathered outside the main gate of the registration centre set up for the displaced persons of the Malik Din tribe in Nowai Kamar, a remote area of Bara tehsil in Khyber district.
Among the throng of displaced residents, a smaller group stands apart — their faces etched with exhaustion and helplessness. These are the persons with disabilities (PWDs), forcibly uprooted from Tirah Valley, and for them, the ordeal does not end with displacement. It continues, day after day, at the registration centre gate. Where they should have been given priority they are now meant to wait endlessly for their registration.
At the centre, members of a local elders’ committee direct people to stand in line. But when the PWDs step forward, they are turned away with a familiar explanation: their names do not appear on the pre-prepared lists. A long journey, endless waiting and empty hands — this has become the daily reality for Tirah’s disabled persons who have been displaced.
‘I came twice but with nothing’
Naib Khan was displaced from Tirah Valley about a week and a half ago and is now staying temporarily at his brother’s home in Nowshera. He has made the long journey to the registration centre twice, hoping to enrol and qualify for the financial assistance being offered to displaced families. Both times, he left without being registered.
“I left Tirah a week and a half ago. I made the long and difficult journey here twice to register, but both times I stood in the queue for hours and the office closed before I could be seen. We PWDs are made to stand in the same lines as everyone else, which is extremely difficult for us.”
Five attempts, five rejections
Sixty-year-old Umar Shah steps out of a rickshaw and makes his way slowly toward the registration centre, steadying himself with two walking sticks. This is his fifth attempt. Each of the previous four visits ended the same way — turned away, no registration.
“Sometimes they tell me to get my ID card changed; other times they say I am too old. We are forced to stand in queues with everyone else and wait for hours. There is no arrangement whatsoever to ease the burden on people like us.”
All the disabled individuals present at the centre have their national identity cards registered with Tirah Valley addresses. Yet, due to a lack of proper guidance and available facilities, their registration is being refused. When this reporter attempted to speak to officials inside the centre about the difficulties faced by disabled persons, entry was only granted after a prolonged wait. The officials themselves acknowledged that no separate arrangements exist for persons with disabilities or elderly citizens.
Two children dead in the cold
Khair Mohammad Afridi, president of an organisation working for the rights of persons with disabilities in Tirah Valley, says NADRA has issued disability cards to only five people across the entire valley, leaving many more without access to this entitlement.
“During the displacement, two disabled children died from the severe cold. To this day, the government has provided no assistance to their families. Among the displaced, persons with disabilities face problems that are many times greater than those faced by others. I urge the provincial government and philanthropists to take immediate steps to help these people.”
Afridi said he had raised the issue of the barriers faced by disabled persons in the registration process with relevant authorities, but no progress had been made. This reporter also made multiple attempts to contact officials of the Social Welfare Department regarding the matter, but received no response.
How it works — and where it fails
According to district authorities, the evacuation of Tirah Valley’s local population began on November 10 of last year. Formal registration at the Paina China checkpoint started on January 6 of this year and is still ongoing. So far, 37,000 tokens have been issued and 26,500 families have been registered, with 70 percent of them having already received cash reimbursements for transport costs.
Verified families are receiving Rs 240,000 — Rs 10,000 short of the Rs 250,000 they were promised. A representative of the private bank disbursing the funds clarified that the amount is released in accordance with instructions from district authorities, and that the bank itself is not deducting any portion of the payment.
The provincial government has released Rs 4 billion to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) for financial assistance to families displaced from Tirah, of which approximately one billion rupees has been spent so far.
Khyber district tops the country for registered disabled persons
According to data provided by the Social Welfare Department, 47,000 persons with disabilities are registered with the department across the merged districts, with the highest number — 15,000 — coming from Khyber district alone. The department notes that while the national average for persons with disabilities stands at ten percent of the population, insecurity in the merged tribal districts has pushed that figure to fifteen percent in these areas.
Political opposition to the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, has intensified over concerns about transparency in the registration process and the distribution of funds. The Awami National Party has already staged a protest demonstration outside the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Khyber over the issue.
The story of the thousands displaced from Tirah Valley is far from over. For most families, the registration process is already gruelling. For persons with disabilities, every obstacle is multiplied — walking is hard, standing in a queue is impossible, and within the bureaucratic machinery, there is no one formally tasked with acknowledging their specific difficulties. Until dedicated facilities are provided and a separate, accessible one-window system is established, these individuals will continue to make the journey to the registration centre and return, time and again, with nothing.