Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is hosting more than three million Afghan refugees and some of them have become a security risk for the country because terrorists are using refugee camps as hideouts, according to Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria.

The spokesman told a weekly briefing here on Thursday that the international community and Afghan government should take steps for repatriation of refugees to their own country.

To a question about June 30 deadline for voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees, he said that Pakistan is hosting them for last three-and-a-half decades and now time has arrived that they should go back to their own country. He, however, said that the government may still consider another extension in the deadline.

To a question on Afghan border tensions, the spokesman said that basic purpose of steps being taken by Pakistan on Torkham was to check the movement of any terrorists across the border.

The spokesman said Pakistan has adopted principled position on membership of non-NPT countries in the nuclear suppliers group (NSG). “It should not be discriminatory and must be on the basis of justice. Any decision by NGS should also not disturb balance of power in South Asia,” he said.

He said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was as per schedule and reports of any delay in this regard were not true. He said the project was not only beneficial for Pakistan and China but also for the entire region.