Peshawar
\nKP government\u2019s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif has said that Afghan nationals living legally in Pakistan should not be \u201charassed or expelled\u201d, warning that any action in this regard could sour relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
\nThe government launched the first round of repatriation of what it called \u201cundocumented aliens\u201d in November last year.
\nNo official data has been released as to how many of the estimated 1.7m undocumented Afghans have left for their country since November 2023, though the figure likely fell hugely short of what is now being considered a grossly exaggerated number.
\nBut according to informed sources, the total number of undocumented Afghans who have returned to Afghanistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in the first round stands at around the half million-mark.
\nThe second phase of the repatriation drive to send nearly one million \u2018documented\u2019 Afghans back to their homeland is in the works, with directives to district authorities and police to map and collect data of their whereabouts across the country, documents have revealed.
\n\u201cWe have already started the mapping process,\u201d Abid Majeed, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s additional chief secretary, confirmed to Dawn in March, adding that the deadline for this process was April 30.
\nDuring an interview on Dawn News programme Doosra Rukh on Friday, Barrister Saif was asked about the planned second wave of Afghan deportations and how many still remained within KP.
\nThe PTI leader said that all illegal Afghan migrants in KP had already been repatriated, and that no action was currently underway against legal Afghan residents.
\n\u201cDuring the first phase, we were tasked to identify illegal Afghans in KP and they were deported\u201d, he added. \u201cAll Afghans without any documentation in KP have returned to Afghanistan.\u201d
\nBarrister Saif stated that the only Afghans left in the province were those in possession of Afghan Citizen Cards, in accordance with Pakistani law and international resolutions from bodies like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
\n\u201cThe federal government has only tasked us to track how many legal Afghans are in KP. Our mapping has shown that 359,000 live in the province\u201d, he said, adding that no orders to take action against anyone have been issued.
\n\u201cIf we are instructed to expel them (legal Afghans), then we will talk [to the authorities]. Deporting illegal Afghans was justified, but we cannot harass or target Afghans living here legally\u201d, he said.
\nThe barrister warned that any action against legal Afghans would \u201cfoment hatred, misunderstanding and mistrust between us and Afghanistan.\u201d
\n\u201cThe federal government should approach this situation delicately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peshawar KP government\u2019s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif has said that Afghan nationals living legally in Pakistan should not be \u201charassed or expelled\u201d, warning that any action in this regard could sour relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The government launched the first round of repatriation of what it called \u201cundocumented aliens\u201d in November last year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-401658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n