ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Friday sent a crystalclear message to world capitals that it is its sovereign right to decide who it will allow into its land, and for how long.
This is a global norm. It is Pakistan’s sovereign right to decide who we allow to enter or remain in our country. Every individual residing here illegally will be repatriated.
“We are willing to work with our friends with empathy and with mutual understanding. But it cannot be an open-ended arrangement,” said the spokesperson at the Foreign Office during the weekly briefing when asked about the status of Afghan refugees who were waiting for sanctuary in Europe and the United States.
When asked specifically about Afghan refugees some of whom had to be airlifted to Germany, the spokesperson said that Pakistan had done more than required on its part and that Germany would take this issue seriously.
“We hope this seriousness will be translated into action, and that the German commitment with certain number of Afghans, will be expedited and we are willing to work with Germany because we have decades old relationship; on the basis of goodwill and mutual respect. We will see what we can do. But this cannot be an indefinite arrangement. Some countries, including Germany, committed to take a number of Afghans. We work with them but this cannot go on indefinitely. There are large group of Afghans in Pakistan which the German side had committed to take them to Germany. A number of deadlines have passed,” he added.
When asked to comment on the Afghan minister’s remarks to BBC that “Pakistan security agencies are weak, and that they shift the blame for their own failures to stop the TTP and BLA’s activities on Afghanistan”, the spokesperson said that Mullah Yaqoob’s statement appears to be an exercise in irony.
“Whatever the statement issued from the other side, it cannot mask the seriousness of this issue, the enormity of the matter cannot be diminished by whatever number of statements you issue.”
He also pointed out that in the case of Afghans, no country has been as generous a host as Pakistan.
“Regarding this notion of expulsion of Afghans, I would say we have an overall policy and it is not targeting Afghans. Any person who is illegally in Pakistan will be sent back. It doesn’t matter where he or she is from. There is no targeting of Afghans.
“We are issuing a large number of visas to Afghans under different categories, including visit, business, family, education and medical visas. For Afghanistan, we have a special visa category under which on arrival visa is granted for certain medical emergencies. So, what I want to emphasise, we already have a very liberalised visa regime in place,” he further explained.
To a query about the US position on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit, he said this is better addressed by the US spokesperson.
“What I can emphasise is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation over the years has demonstrated its vitality, its utility, its critical role in creating stability and common prosperity in the entire Eurasia,” he said.
