PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday asked the State and Frontier Regions secretary and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary to formally respond to a petition seeking orders for the federal government against extending the stay of Afghan refugees in the country for another year and for ensuring their early repatriation.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the order after holding preliminary hearing into the petition filed by lawyer Mohammad Khursheed Khan.

The bench also directed the petitioner and federal government to prepare arguments on the point whether the high court can interfere in a policy matter under Article 199 of the Constitution.

The petitioner requested the court to order the federal government not to give further extension to the Afghan refugees regarding their stay in Pakistan.

He prayed the court to also issued directives to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to close down all businesses conducted by Afghan refugees also to place a ban on sale and purchase of properties by them.

Centre, KP told to respond to petition seeking refugees’ early repatriation

The petitioner pleaded that the KP government be further directed to ban the free movement of Afghan refugees in cities across the province.

Respondents in the petition are the federal government through the ministry of State and Frontier Regions; KP government through its chief secretary, and commissioner for Afghan refugees.

The petitioner said after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan the Pakistani government had allowed entry of Afghan refugees in Pakistan in 1979 on basis of humanity and in the first year over 400,000 Afghan refugees took shelter here.

He said refugees totaled over two million in 1981 and the number jumped to four million during the Taliban times.

The petitioner claimed that the population census of refugees conducted in 2002 showed that the number of Afghans in Pakistan were 3.04 million.

He added that so far, the proof of registration cards were issued to 2.14 million Afghan refugees.

The petitioner said millions of Afghan refugees had been a burden on the country’s economy for the last 37 years.

He said Afghan refugees had been illegally carrying out big businesses and acquired properties here.

The petitioner added that the refugees had been freely roaming around as there was no restriction on their mobility.

He claimed that after arrival of Afghan refugees the crimes rate had increased and they had also introduced heroin and Kalashnikov culture in the country.

The petitioner added that situation in Afghanistan had now been improving and NATO and other foreign countries had also been helping Afghanistan in different fields.

He said the international pressure had forced the federal government to give a year extension to Afghan refugees in their stay in the country despite the provincial government’s opposition.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017