ISLAMABAD: Speakers and participants of a roundtable conference held in Islamabad agreed that the government’s policy to repatriate illegal Afghan refugees has to succeed to achieve the desired goals.

A conference titled “Evaluating the impact of government’s policy on repatriation of unauthorised refugees” was organised by the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).

According to a statement, the session was chaired by Chairman PICSS Major General Saad Khattak (R), who said in his concluding remarks that in whatever circumstances the policy was adopted, once it was adopted, it should be backed and it must succeed.

“There is almost a consensus that Afghan refugees have to go back to their homeland; the only difference is about the time selected for the adoption of this policy. However, since it is adopted now in the middle of implementation, the focus should be on the success of the policy,” he said.

Brigadier Ishaq Khattak said that Pakistan and Afghanistan had almost shaky relations. He said that the goal of improving the security situation in the country through the repatriation of Afghan refugees was hard to achieve. According to him, there may be some decline in social or ordinary crimes, but as far as the issue of terrorism is concerned, it would be hard to achieve that goal because TTP has its sanctuaries and patronage in Afghanistan.

Salman Javed emphasised the economic and cultural role of repatriation on both sides. He said that following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, 886,000 Afghans entered Pakistan and now hold a card registered in both Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s databases.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023