QUETTA: Workers and supporters of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) took out a rally in support of Afghan refugees and urged the government of Pakistan to stop their ‘forced repatriation’.

The participants of the rally, led by PkMAP Secretary General Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal and Dr Hamid Achakzai, gathered in Quetta Metropolitan Corporation compound before the rally. They chanted slogans against the deportation of Afghan refugees and Peca Act.

They marched on various streets of the provincial capital carrying party flags, placards and banners inscribed with their demands.

The rally after reaching Manan Chowk converted into a public meeting which was addressed by Mr Ziaratwal, Dr Abdul Hamid Khan Achakzai, Abdul Haq Abdal, and others.

The speakers told the protesters that Afghan refugees came to Pakistan through UNHCR and spent over 40 years in the country. They made social relations with local people, established their business along with the people of Pakistan and now the government is sending them back to Afghanistan forcibly instead of giving them citizenship, the gathering was told.

They said that the West granted citizenship to those people who spend five years while the Pakistan government sent them after 40 long years. They demanded that Afghan “Kadwal” should not be repatriated rather be given Pakistani Citizenship and as Pakistani citizens will spend their lives peacefully according to the constitution and law of the land.

They condemned the treatment being done with the Afghan refugees while sending them to their country as said that their three generations during their stay as refugees obtained medical, engineering and other disciplines in Pakistani universities. They said that Afghan refugees should be recognized Pakistani citizen and issued citizenship certificate.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2025