PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday put off hearing plea of three Afghan singers seeking directives for the government against deporting them, insisting they’ll be persecuted in the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

A bench consisting of Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Syed Arshad Ali directed deputy attorney general Hazrat Said to file comments on behalf of the federal government to the petition jointly field by Hashmatullah Omed, Rafi Hanif and Hameed Shahdai, who claimed they were singers by profession and lived in Pakistan as refugees.

The petitioners’ counsel, Mumtaz Ahmad, informed the bench that four almost identical petitions had been filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against forced repatriation of Afghans.

He suggested that it would be appropriate for the high court to wait for the outcome of those petition in the apex court and to decide the instant plea in the light of that decision.

Four such petitions awaiting adjudication in Supreme Court, counsel tells court

Their counsel claimed that after the takeover by the Taliban, life for artists in Afghanistan was very dangerous and miserable as the government had announced that it wouldn’t tolerate such activities.

He added that like thousands of other Afghans, they fled their country along with families and lived in Pakistan.

The lawyer said that the petitioners and their families were registered by the UN refugee agency, which gave them a token number and their cases were now under process.

He said Pakistan’s government had adopted the policy of forced return for refugees to Afghanistan in violation of international law, protocols and agreements.

The petitioners have requested the court to issue directives to the government to allow them to live undisturbed and peaceful life as refugees in Pakistan.

Afghan musicians and singers were accompanying the petitioners in large number to attend the court proceeding on Thursday.

A day earlier, over the contention of the petitioners that they had been registered by the UNHCR and a token number was issued to them, the bench had wondered how could it register Afghan refugees, who entered the country in the last two and three years, without the consent of Pakistan’s government, and had sought the response of authorities about the matter.

The lawyer had referred to a 2003 tripartite agreement between the government of Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR saying under that agreement, there won’t be forced repatriation of refugees.

However, the bench had observed that the status of petitioners was not that of refugees.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2023