Financial Cost of Swat Operation

Over two million people of Swat region are reported to have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the number is increasing with everyday passing. These people have become refugees within their own country. Excluding the psychological dents in the lives of troops and IDPs, and unknown number of casualties of troops and civilians, let us calculate the financial expenses of these IDPs. Assuming the minimum daily expense to be Rs. 50.00 per day per head, rupees one hundred million per day will have to be spent. It is expected that it may take upto six months before these IDPs start resettling in their own homes. Daily expenses of IDPs for six months comes out to be rupees eighteen billion. Government has announced grant of Rs. 25000.00 per family to enable them to start their lives afresh. The money required to pay the compensatory allowance totals to be rupees ten billion. The sum total comes out to be rupees twenty eight billion. This estimate is very modest and doesn't include the expenses incurred by army undertaking the operation, the repairing the damages caused to the infrastructre. The Economic Advisor to the government has put this assessment to be around one billion US dollars i.e rupees eighty billion. All this is being done to eliminate around 5000 Taliban; each one of them costing us Rs. 16 million.