Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) on Thursday showed great concern over the illegal inflow of Afghan nationals to Pakistan at large numbers without their registration by the quarters concerned after regime change in the war-torn country.

The Committee which met here with Ibadullah Khan in the Chair, expressed deep concern over the freely moment of unregistered Afghan nationals without any restrictions and occupied major businesses in big cities, especially in Karachi and Peshawar, without paying taxes to the government of Pakistan.

The NA body recommended that Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Secretaries, Home Departments of all the provinces would be invited in the next meeting to discuss the issue of unregistered Afghan nationals living mostly in urban areas of the country to chalk out a mechanism to stop them on border areas.

Additional Secretary, Ministry of SAFRON, informed while briefing the Committee that Pakistan generously hosted millions of Afghans for the last four decades.

He said that currently, there were three categories of Afghans living in Pakistan that includes 1.4 million Registered Proof of Registration (POR) Card holders, 840,000 Afghan Citizen Card holders (ACC) and estimated by various agencies 0.7 million undocumented Afghans.

The Commissioner, Afghan Refugees Headquarter shared the issues and challenges in the repatriation of the Afghan refugees, including the insufficient livelihood opportunities and non-conducive environment in Afghanistan. He informed the Committee that the process of repatriation of Afghan refugees remained slow, after the withdrawal of US-NATO forces from Afghanistan.

The Committee deferred the agenda item regarding the alleged possession of FATA House, Islamabad, by the Federal Government however, the said House was constructed from the FATA Annual Development Fund for official use by the Parliamentarians and officers of FATA with the direction that the Secretary, Ministry of Interior must attend the next meeting to brief the Committee on the said issue.

The meeting was attended among other by MNAs Chaudry Muhammad Ashraf, Naveed Ameer Jeeva, Afreen Khan, Shakila Luqman, Nuzhat Pathan, Nasiba Channa, officials of the Ministry and its attached departments.