KARACHI, Dec 30: The Sindh Governor, Dr Ishratul Ibad, has issued instructions on Thursday to set up a separate camp for Afghan nationals living in Karachi, besides giving them adequate incentives for returning home.
Presiding over a high-level meeting at the Governor's House to review various steps regarding the return of Afghan refugees, he ordered for immediate steps regarding their registrations and repatriation.
He asked concerned officials to set up a monitoring system to keep a vigil on the return of Afghan refugees after their repatriation. Dr Ibad said the Sindh government had information that Afghans were involved in smuggling of arms and drugs and other crimes. To ensure peace and safety in the city, it was necessary to accelerate the pace of Afghan refugees' repatriation, he added.
With regard to setting up a camp for Afghan refugees, Ibad said a suitable location would be found on the Super Highway or some other place, and all Afghans in various parts of the city would be shifted to the camp and their movements restricted to the camp.
Not only this, but the process of their (Afghans) registration and voluntary repatriation would also be fully completed, said the governor, adding that administrative matters would be finalized before March 2006 - the deadline of the tripartite pact for repatriation of Afghan refugees.
He said it was necessary to convince the Afghan refugees that since all their documents would become null and void after March 2006; it was in their own interest to voluntarily opt for repatriation, as after the deadline they would have to go home.
He asked the provincial interior secretary to finalize proposals in this regard, so that the matter could be raised with the federal government. The head field officer of the UNHCR, on the occasion, briefed the meeting on the number of Afghan displace persons (DPs) in Pakistan and procedure of their repatriation.
The meeting was told that from March 2002 to December 2004, as many as 411,181 Afghan refugee families and 2.292 million individuals had gone home. The meeting was further told that 46,092 Afghan families and 238,249 persons had returned home from the Sindh province alone, adding that more than 0.5 million Afghan refugees were still present in the city.
The government of Pakistan, with the collaboration of the UNHCR has launched a project to count the exact number of Afghan DPs in the country, the meeting was told.
The Sindh governor, on the occasion, asked the Inspector General of Police Sindh to ensure that every Afghan national present in the city went through police checking. The meeting decided to convene a meeting on Jan 15, 2005 to review the progress on the decisions taken in the present meeting.
The Provincial Interior Minister, Rauf Siddiqui, Principal Secretary Brig Akhtar Zamin, ACS Muhammad Salim Khan, Interior Secretary Brig Ghulam Muhammad, IGP Sindh, DCO Rangers, DCO Karachi and representatives of the UNHCR and other institutions regarding repatriation of Afghan refugees also attended the meeting. - PPI
