I attended an International Conference on Health and Migration, which was held at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, on December 19, 2019. This was, indeed, a wonderful conference on a very important topic. The participants and the paper presenters not only highlighted the issues and miseries of the migrants and refugees, but, at the same, they showed sympathy with refugees as well. There is no doubt about this fact that no one leaves his or her country without any reason. The reason behind it might be persecution of a particular community, family or even an individual, or it could be some calamity that forces the concerned person (s) to leave the country. Whatever the logic behind migration be, this is indeed a matter of applauding and appreciation that the country (s), other than their own, opens the borders and warmly welcome the refugees. Likewise, after the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, a huge number of Afghan refugees fled from Afghanistan and entered in Pakistan.
In this regard, Zuha Siddiqui wrote in her article, published in Foreign Policy on May 9, 2019, “By the end of 1980, close to 2 million refugees from Afghanistan had crossed the Durand Line and reached Pakistan. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) set up its first office in Peshawar that year.”
Pakistan, despite being a developing country, welcomed these refugees. According to Sana Jamal, Correspondent Gulf News for Pakistan, “One of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations, Pakistan is home to an estimated 2.4 million registered and undocumented people from Afghanistan. There were an estimated 1,405,715 registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan as of June 2019, as per the statistics by UN refugee agency.”
The issue of migrations to Sindh, specifically Karachi, has remained one of the most hotly-debated issues
While quoting the UNHCR Pakistan and IOM Afghanistan, she further wrote, “According to the UNHCR Pakistan and IOM Afghanistan: Registered Afghan Refugees: 1,405,715. Registered refugees returned (Jan-Jun 2019): 2,036. Undocumented refugees returned (Jan-Jun 2019): 10,789.”
The aforementioned numbers show how the Pakistan governments have been welcoming the Afghan refugees, but at the same time, we must not ignore the concerns of the local population, wherever these refugees settled in.
In this context, those refugees settled in KPK, specifically Peshawar, were warmly welcomed because the local inhabitants of Peshawar and other parts of KPK spoke the same language, Pashto was not difficult to mingle for both the host community and the refugees. But, on the other hand, refugees who settled in other parts of the country, especially in Balochistan and Sindh, not only faced more complexities, as compared to refugees settled in KP but the host communities also faced problems.
As far as the migration to Sindh is concerned, Sindh has been hosting emigrants since the twelfth and thirteen centuries. In “PAKISTAN The Contours of State and Society (OUP, 2002),” Soofia Mumtaz wrote, “thirty per cent of the Muslim population of Sindh had also originated outside its borders. The main groups among the latter were the Syeds and the Baloch. The Syeds and the powerful Pir families among them note Talbot, had settled in Sindh in the twelfth and thirteen centuries after fleeing their homes in Central Asia in the wake of the Mongol invasions. The Baloch totalled 23 per cent of the Muslim population of the province. Among them were not only the pastoral nomads who had historically frequented the fertile Indus Valley with their livestock but also the Balochs, who had been encouraged to settle in Sindh towards the close of the Mughal period in appreciation of their martial qualities. The chief of the Talpur tribe had seized power from the Sindhi Kalhora rulers at the end of the eighteenth century. Hence, it was the Mirs of the Baloch tribes who ruled Sindh before it was annexed by the British in 1843.” (p 98).
As Sindh hosted these Syeds and Pirs from Central Asia while a large proportion of the Baloch population had migrated from Balochistan to Sindh, which has been assimilated with Sindhis. Likewise, people who speak Siraiki at their homes are also a part of Sindhi nationality after they assimilated. Therefore, we never had seen any conflict or contradictions between Sindhi, Siraiki and Balochi-speaking people in the history of Sindh since immigration occurred. But, on the other hand, people of Sindh have witnessed ethnic fissures between Sindhi and Urdu speakers, and also between Pashtuns and Urdu speakers living in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. The Sindhi population was already overnightly converted in a minority in Karachi due to the exodus of Urdu-speaking Mohajirs from India settled in the city. Again, after the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, a large number of Afghan refugees settled in Karachi. Now, Karachi is known as the largest Pashtun populated city in the world.
The issue of migrations to Sindh, specifically Karachi and other urban centres of the province, has remained one of the hotly debated issues. This is the issue, which has provided a ground to the power seeker political parties, who have been supporting and opposing the migration and vice versa.
The political parties, which hold a stake in Karachi, like MQM, ANP, and PPP, have been focusing this issue enthusiastically. Now, PTI is an addition to these power seeker political parties. In 2014, when the operation against MQM was launched in Karachi, since then, parties like PPP and PTI are trying to gain the support of the Urdu speaking population. As far as the ANP is concerned, it has been relying only on the Pashtun vote in the city, so the Pashtun migration, specifically from former FATA and other deprived Pashtun dominated areas to Karachi, has always seen in favour of the ANP. The MQM had been resisting the Pashtun migration for decades, simultaneously, PPP, which mainly relies on Sindhi speaking people’s vote in the city and also the vote of Balochi speakers of Liyari, is demanding repatriation of Afghan refugees as soon as possible.
In 2018, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced about PTI government’s decision to granting citizenship to around 1.5 million Afghan refugees, this move of the PTI government was severely criticised by chief ministers of Sindh and Balochistan, because like Karachi, Quetta is another city where Afghan refugees are settled in a large number, which hurts the sentiments of the local/indigenous population of both provinces. Although helping out these refugees in difficult times is a noble cause, but at the same, this is also a fair demand that once the problems resolved in their own country, refugees should be repatriated to their respective areas (surprisingly, I did not come across a single research paper presented at the conference held in QAU, which talks about the concerns of host populations.). Yet, demanding repatriation of refugees does not mean the host populations show any kind of hatred against refugees, but in economic terms, this is very clear that the long stay of refugees in a city, province, or country, affects the host populations.
Therefore, the PTI government, which had extended the stay of registered Afghan refugees till June 2020, should ensure the safe repatriation of refugees before the deadline of their stay in Pakistan. Simultaneously, a safe returning of refugees from former FATA and other terrorist affected areas should also be made possible. Because in these critical times, when Pakistan is economically unstable, the burden of refugees on smaller provinces, like Balochistan and Sindh, can create more problems, which must be avoided.
The writer has a PhD in Global Studies from the College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, China