Afghan refugees’ stay

PHC seeks reply from two secretaries

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday sought reply from secretary State and Frontier Regions and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary in a petition seeking the federal government orders against further extension in the stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan for another year.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Roohul Amin Khan sought reply in a review petition as earlier the high court had dismissed this plea of the petitioner in the first hearing.

The bench sought reply in the review petition, filed by senior lawyer and former deputy attorney general Muhammad Khurshid Khan, who also requested the court to issue direction to the federal government for ensuring their early repatriation.

The petitioner also requested the court to also issue directives to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to close down all businesses conducted by Afghan refugees and place a ban on sale and purchase of properties owned by them.

The senior lawyer also requested the court to issue directions to the KP government to ban the free movement of Afghan refugees in cities across the province. After the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, he said the Pakistani government had allowed entry of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in 1979 on basis of humanity and in the first year over 400,000 Afghan refugees took shelter here.

The lawyer said refugees reached over two million in 1981 and the number jumped to four million during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He claimed that the population census of refugees conducted in 2002 showed that the numbers of Afghans in Pakistan were 3.04 million.

The lawyer added that so far, the Proof of Registration Cards were issued to 2.14 million Afghan refugees. The petitioner said millions of Afghan refugees had been a burden on the country’s economy for the last 37 years.

He said the Afghan refugees had been illegally carrying out big businesses and acquired properties here. The petitioner added that situation in Afghanistan was now improving.