Illegal Afghan refugees to be sent back by year-end

Karachi
The Sindh government decided on Saturday that a campaign would be launched to repatriate illegal and unregistered Afghan refugees by the end of this year. It also decided that the home department’s permission would be necessary to set up new madrassas.
These decisions were made at a meeting of the subsidiary execution committee of the provincial apex committee formed under the National Action Plan.
Home secretary Abdul Kabir Kazi presided over the meeting.
Later, the home secretary told reporters that the provincial government had set the date of December 31 this year to repatriate illegal and unregistered Afghan refugees back to their country.
He added that the authorities would take strict action against the illegal immigrants who had unlawfully obtained properties in the province.
Quoting reports, Kazi said around 2.7 million Afghan refugees were living in Sindh of which 67,000 had registered themselves with the government while 85,000 were living in refugee camps.
The home secretary said the president had rejected the mercy petitions of six death row prisoners in Sindh and they would be hanged soon.
During the meeting, it was pointed out that 25,000 Afghan refugees had illegally obtained computerised national identity cards which would be cancelled soon.
It was also informed that a high-security prison was being constructed in Jamshoro near Hyderabad for keeping terrorists.
A counter-terrorism department has been formed in accordance with the vision of National Action Plan.
Around 1,000 policemen were being transferred to the new department so that they could be trained by the army to tackle the threat of terrorism.
Two police stations have been set up in Karachi for the counter-terrorism department. Two more will be set up in Sukkur and Hyderabad.
The participants of the meeting were told that Sindh would soon introduce and adopt a law for banning unauthorised use of loudspeakers.

Madrassas
It was decided at the meeting that the home department’s permission would be required for setting up new madrassas.
Details of each madrassa in the province will be compiled with the assistance of the stakeholders in the religious education sector.
There are 1,000 registered seminaries functioning in the province. Around 2,848 foreign students are studying there.
The participants of the meeting were informed that the home department and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had signed a memorandum of understanding.
Under the agreement, police would be able to access Nadra’s biometric and information database. With access to the database, criminals will be unable to deceive the police by changing their names.
Military courts
It was informed at the meeting that the provincial government had recommended 20 more cases to the interior ministry in addition to the 64 earlier ones for sending them to the military courts.
The home secretary said the sub-committees would take practical steps for ensuring the early implementation of the decisions made by the provincial apex committee.
He added that a cell had been formed at the home department for monitoring the implementation of the provincial action plan.
Agha Ghazanfar, the commissioner and project director of the Afghan Refugees Repatriation Cell in Sindh, and additional IGP Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo were also present at the meeting.