KARACHI: Pakistan’s Minister for the Interior, Khwaja Shahabuddin, stressed in an interview … on Wednesday [April 19] afternoon that “there should now be no cause for panic and the minority should be able to shed their fear and stay on in their homes”. “This is my sincere advice to the Muslims of Bharat,” he added [.] Answering questions on Pakistan Government’s permit policy, the Minister for the Interior told the APP that the Government had, for a short period considerably relaxed this policy “on account of a heavy influx into West Pakistan of refugees from northern and central Bharat”.

This mass migration, he observed, still continued in some proportion and caused anxiety to the Government. The vast majority of the in-coming refugees were townsmen who insisted on settling down in the larger cities like Lahore, Hyderabad (Sind) and Karachi.

Pointing out that these cities were already over-crowded “and offered no scope whatever for rehabilitation”, Khwaja Shahabud­din said: “The refugees cannot come to these towns without running serious risks or putting themselves to considerable hardships.” — News agencies

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2025