Daily Times

As soon as Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti announced the arrest of six ‘Afghan spies’ from Pishin, all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan become pariahs. The honourable minister employing a harsh tone declared in a rather dishonourable way that either the Afghan refugees return voluntarily with respect and dignity, or the people of Balochistan will humiliate them and throw them out of the country. Bugti has claimed that the arrested spies were involved in subversive activities in the province at the behest of the Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security (NDS). In an alleged confession, the spies acknowledged that they were paid Rs 80,000 per bombing, Rs 250,000 per assassination, and that they were being provided logistical and financial support by the NDS, in addition to receiving instructions from three Afghan generals who were running the operations.

Though the minister was quick in holding ‘all’ Afghan refugees responsible for lawlessness in country in general and Balochistan in particular, he forgot the ground realities that Pakistan is also responsible for the present plight of the Afghan nation. By blaming Afghans for all ills, Pakistan’s security agencies and other institutions’ cannot hide their own deficiencies and poor performance. Pakistan cannot absolve its institutions of all responsibilities by making refugees as scapegoats. Why was NADRA involved in the issuance of fake CNICs to Afghans? Why did our security agencies use the Afghan Taliban to achieve regional interests while declaring them strategic assets? Not only Pakistan’s security agencies, the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan and India have also started the dirty game of indulging in proxy wars. Ultimately, it is citizens of a victim state who becoming sufferers of these regional proxy conflicts. More Afghans fled violence, persecution and ethnic cleansing and genocide as a result of regional proxy conflicts in Afghanistan throughout the 1990s. In order to appease the US, Pakistani rulers (both civil and military) became involved in the Afghan war to destabilise the pro-Soviet government of People Democratic Party in Afghanistan by aiding and sending Pashtun-armed guerillas there. This adventure resulted in mass exodus of Afghans into Pakistan as refugees, and now Pakistan is reaping the harvest sown by its past rulers.

Undoubtedly, all Afghan refugees cannot be declared terrorists, as these are needy and registered displaced people who merely seek shelter in Pakistan, their neighbouring country. Many among them have been living here for many years, have set up their businesses and homes and are contributing to the economy of Pakistan positively. On one hand, Pakistan urges the western world to accept Syrian refugees and on the other hand, the state is using such harsh language against Afghan refugees. It is sheer injustice to punish all for crimes committed by a few. Almost 2,500 years ago Euripides wrote, “There is no greater sorrow on Earth than the loss of one’s native land.” Afghans should return to their homes, as that would be any refugee’s biggest, rather only dream, but before that happens those states that are responsible for the present plight of Afghans, must make efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan.

The labelling of Afghan refugees as a “burden on our economy” or potential “recruits for terrorism” is not just a hugely careless statement but also a brutal generalisation of millions of people displaced by war, and relentless bloodshed and chaos in Afghanistan. Such statements also bear testimony to years of haphazard, patchy, shortsighted and self-serving policies of Pakistan government in the context of its role in the US war in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s hegemonic regional designs, its interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs, and lack of attention to proper rehabilitation of Afghan refuges, which also included their safe return to their homeland. *