PESHAWAR: The registration of Afghan nationals has been delayed till July 25 for some technical reasons, an official at the Afghan Consulate said on Saturday. “The complete registration process will begin across the country from August 16,” Shakirullah Sabawoon, who is also Afghan government’s representative at the Afghan Consulate, told The News. He said the registration of about 550,000 unregistered Afghans was supposed to begin from July 15, but due to some technical and legal ground the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) will now issue the cards on July 25 in Peshawar. “And the complete registration process will begin from August 16 wherein about 25 registration centres would be established across the country,” he elaborated. The official said that two mobile teams one each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan would register the unregistered Afghan nationals in Pakistan. He said that 11 registration centres would be set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including four in Peshawar, one each in Kohat, Hangu, Mansehra, Haripur and Swabi. Besides, he added that five registration centres would be set up in Balochistan, four in the Punjab and five in Sindh. Shakirullah Sabawoon said that under an agreement, Pakistan and Afghanistan government had agreed to register the unregistered Afghans living in Pakistan and for this purpose the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions and Nadra were asked to issue these cards. Similarly, he said, the Afghan government would send special teams to Pakistan to verify these Afghans during the registration process. He said that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan had no business with the registration of unregistered Afghan nationals. “The UNHCR has already issued PoR cards to registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan,” he pointed out. The official said that after registration the Afghans would get cash amount and other assistance from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Afghan government upon their return to Pakistan. He clarified that the holders of the cards would get no financial assistance from UNHCR as part of the voluntary repatriation process. He added that the actual number of unregistered Afghans in Pakistan would be identified once the registration is completed. The number of unregistered Afghan refugees is estimated to be about one million.