PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Tuesday showed concern about the stay and unrestricted movement of Afghan refugees in the province.

“Presence of Afghan refugees and their movement is the constant source of crime both felony and misdemeanor in the province,” he said during a meeting here.

According to a handout issued here, the participants discussed issues related to Afghans living in the province.

The chief minister asked the federal government to realise its role in the repatriation of Afghan refugees and restrict them to camps outside the province.

Asks centre to restrict refugees to camps outside province

“We are in a state of war and the stay of Afghan refugees is an additional burden on the infrastructure of the province,” he said. The federal government has extended the stay of 1.6 million Afghan refugees until December 2015.

Sources privy to the meeting said the participants didn’t take any decision on the issue and that the chief minister expressed his displeasure on it only.

They said even the stay of illegal Afghan nationals was not discussed during the meeting.

“There was nothing. Only the chief minister gave a sermon on the subject,” said a source.

According to the handout, the chief minister said his government was accountable for its people’s safety and security but at the same time, the federal government should show its strong commitment to its role in the repatriation of Afghans or their camping outside the province.

He said his government inherited the issue of refugees and that all stakeholders needed to be on one page to find a suitable solution to it.

Khattak said the federal government should come up with a roadmap for rapid repatriation of refugees.

He said he acknowledged that the law and order situation was his government’s responsibility but the federal government should also have a responsibility to remove all obstacles to the better law and order situation in the province.

The chief minister said before the issue surfaced, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a peaceful province but afterwards, the province kept bleeding.

“Now, we have decided to enforce the writ of the government as the infrastructure and economy of the province are overburdened by Afghan refugees and illegal immigrants,” he said.

Khattak said the past approach rendered people of the province jobless and therefore, his government decided to work in the interest of the people.

“We are at the crossroads of our history where we have to make a decision for a secure future of the people. Therefore, we want to communicate our concern to the federal government to help the people of the province and make radical decisions for their good instead of overburdening them,” he said.

The chief minister said the people couldn’t afford bloody events like the Army Public School carnage and that as the provincial government was under severe pressure, political forces agreed on one point to repatriate Afghan refugees and re-deploy Frontier Constabulary on the border between settled and tribal areas.

He demanded deployment of Frontier Constabulary on the border between settled and tribal areas insisting Afghan refugees are the constant source of the worsening law and order situation in the province.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014