PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The census of Afghan refugees in Pakistan may not be foolproof because the procedure being followed for the exercise has several loopholes, said official sources.

"Certain terms and conditions determined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the next census of the Afghans will spoil the process," apprehended an official.

An agreement between the federal ministry of state and frontier regions (SAFRON) and the UN agency in Islamabad on January 11 had decided that enumerators would not count those members of a family who were found to be absent at the time the functionaries visited the household, an official said.

"People not found in a house would not be counted," said the official. "The whole exercise will be useless under such conditions," the official said. According to the census rules and regulations of the government, sources said, the enumerators are supposed to count all the members in the household whether present or absent at the time the exercise is carried out.

Another irritant in finding out the actual number of Afghan refugees in the country was the fact that many of them held Pakistani passports and identity cards which they had secured illegally, the sources said.