05 November 2004	Friday	21 Ramazan 1425

QUETTA, Nov 4: Federal Minister for State and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind has said he would be visiting Kabul soon to discuss with the Afghan leadership the issue of repatriation of all 3.2 million Afghan refugees up to March 2006.

He was speaking at a ceremony organized by the UNHCR Quetta office to mark the voluntary repatriation of over 1,20,000 refugees from Balochistan during 2004, at the Baleli Departure Centre here on Thursday.

He also saw off another group of 402 refugees who repatriated to their homeland under the UNHCR voluntarily repartition programme.

"Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees with whatever limited resources it had," Sardar Rind said, adding that the government was extending all possible cooperation to the UNHCR regarding Afghan repatriation.

He lauded the efforts of the UNHCR for the repatriation of refugees from Pakistan to Afghanistan and expressed the hope that the remaining 3.2 million refugees would also be repatriated to their homeland shortly under a tripartite agreement.

The situation in Afghanistan, he said, was improving and going towards normalcy, and added that Pakistan wanted peace and stability in its neighbouring country. "We hope that the new Afghan set-up under the leadership of President Hamid Karzai would prove helpful to bring peace in Afghanistan," he maintained.

"We want that Afghan refugees must return to their home with good memories of their stay in Pakistan. I hope that are fully satisfied with the services provided to them by the government during their stay," he added.

The head of the UNHCR sub-office, Quett, Kwame Boafo, said that since the beginning of the voluntary repatriation programme of Afghan refugees, the UNHCR had been closely working with the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan.