KARACHI, Dec 28: Pakistan is considering repatriation of those Bengali-speaking people who have acquired aliens registration cards (ARCs) by admitting that they are Bangladesh nationals.

The government has authorized a representative of the interior ministry and high-ups of the National Aliens Registration Authority (Nara) to hold negotiations with Bangladesh diplomats in the country in this respect, well-placed sources told Dawn.

They said that the decision to hold negotiations with Bangladesh mission had been taken owing to legal impediments in the issuance of white passports to the aliens for one visit only. According to the officials, 37,000 aliens had applied for the ARCs and 26,000 of them appeared to be Bengali-speaking.

The proposal to issue the white passport, to provide foreign nationals an opportunity to return to their country of origin, had been considered in the first quarter of the year 2002. The interior ministry and other concerned departments had pondered its pros and cons for the purpose of legislation that could allow aliens getting themselves registered with Nara, to obtain the white passport as a legal document meant for one-time travel — to their home country only.

However, the sources said, there were a number of legal hitches in introducing white passport and the government could not issue it unilaterally.

According to the officials, passport identifies its holder’s nationality besides being a legal travel document. There is no instance where a country would issue two passports to an applicant. They said that issuance of passports to aliens might also tantamount to regard them as Pakistani nationals.

Besides, white passport’s recognition by other countries is also a big question, the sources pointed out, and said that interior ministry had reached the conclusion that Bangladesh be persuaded through negotiations to take its nationals back.

“If Bangladesh agrees, then the white passport can be issued,” an official in the interior ministry in Islamabad said on condition of anonymity.

“We have made a request to Bangladesh diplomats and an initial meeting in this respect is likely to be held soon,” the official said.

He said the negotiations would advance if the diplomats gave a positive response. After a formal approval by Dhaka for the arrangement, white passports would be issued to the Bangladesh nationals ought to be repatriated.

The sources said that Nara had been assigned the task of registering an estimated 3.3 million aliens living in the country, 1.8 million of them in Karachi alone, within five years. However, Nara had miserably failed to accelerating the process. It has, so far, managed to register only about 37,000 aliens, about 26,000 of whom are Bengali-speaking people, they added.

A meeting between Nara officials and the special branch of Sindh police was held about a month back. The meeting had decided that three/four surprise raids be conducted every month in all the localities where aliens lived in a large number. The meeting was of the view that such measures would force the aliens to get themselves registered.

However, no raids have been conducted anywhere ever since the decision was taken, the sources pointed out.