The government of Pakistan has decided to send all foreigners including the Afghan refugees residing illegally in the country back to their homeland, although this decision will be applied to all the foreigners who are illegally residing in Pakistan. Since a large majority of the Afghan refugees are staying illegally, the noise regarding them is getting louder.
The Afghan interim government is also not happy with this decision of Pakistan, a self-styled spokesperson and a self-styled social media activist named General Mubeen has created a storm by spewing poison and selling lies against Pakistan in Afghan TV talk shows. They are not only criticizing this decision of Pakistan, but they are also making unnecessary and false accusations. It’s just that making false accusations against Pakistan is his favorite time pass. Although these accusations are not worthy of being answered, the government of Pakistan should talk to the Afghan interim government and make people like Mubeen go to hell. Why do those who blame Pakistan forget that Pakistan has created a new history of sacrifices for Afghanistan?
No country in the world has given shelter to the refugees of a neighboring country for half a century. Facilities are available which are not available even to the citizens of Pakistan. They have taken over businesses here, have bought properties, and are proving themselves as Pakistani citizens by making fake Pakistani ID cards and passports. A large number of them have gone abroad on Pakistani passports in Saudi Arabia during the last few years. More than twelve thousand Afghan refugees have been involved in illegal smuggling on Pakistani passports. In this regard, although Pakistanis are no less, the so-called Afghan General Mubeen has criticized Pakistan that its citizens beg abroad, although the majority of these beggars are Afghans who hold Pakistani passports.
No country in the world has given shelter to the refugees of a neighboring country for half a century.
A large number of them are involved in drug smuggling, illegal stay, and other crimes in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Ministry of Interior has a record of all those illicit activities if the Afghanis wants to confirm it. Unfortunately, when Pakistan decides to evacuate Afghan refugees from Pakistan, these kinds of meaningless things start coming out from Afghanistan. Sometimes they accuse Pakistan of interfering in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. Pakistan opened the doors of its country and heart for Afghan citizens, allowed them to stay in Pakistan, fought alongside them in wars, accepted the hostility of other nations, and endured attacks and bombings on their own country.
As a result of the sacrifices of Pakistan and Afghans, the Soviet Union was forced to escape from Afghanistan. The second time when the United States decided to attack Afghanistan, Pakistan requested the Afghan Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States and explained to them that the war would harm both countries and the people. Peace requires that the US should not go to war, but resolve the problem through negotiation and discussion, but since the Afghan leadership was not ready to listen to anything reasonable, they made war enough. If the Afghan leadership had shown prudence and wisdom at that time, heavy losses would have been avoided.
It took fifty years for Pakistan to recover from its evil effects. In Pakistan, suicide and attacks on security forces were at peak. Pakistan’s economic condition was also very bad. Therefore, the government of Pakistan decided to expel all illegal immigrants from its country. No sensible person can disagree with this decision of Pakistan, except the Afghan leadership and General Mobeen.
However, the Afghan leadership is still not happy with the withdrawal of Afghan refugees and in response to Pakistan, which fought two wars alongside it, served as a base camp for them, endured the hostility and attacks of the Soviet Union, opened the doors of Pakistan for Afghans and is a demonstration of brotherhood as seen at the time of Hijra Madinah.
Now the question arises what are the expectations of the leadership of the Afghan govt from Pakistan and what do they want further from us? Pakistan is not in a position to make sacrifices for Afghanistan forever, the time has come when the Afghan refugees must return to their country and finally, it is decided that this is the best time for Afghanis to go back to their country.
The writer is a freelancer and a media activist.