MIANWALI, Sept 16: Impoverished Afghan refugees are living amid a host of problems at Kot Chandan camp in Kalabagh, 35km from here.

A delegation of 25 leaders (Maliks) of Afghan tribes called on Chaudhry Mohammad Zafar Iqbal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office during his visit to the camp.

They apprised him of their problems, which included outbreak of TB, Hepatitis, and Malarial epidemics, insufficient supply of medicines, absence of doctors at night, no registration of Afghan children born in Pakistan and a lack of facilities for secondary education and potable water.

A spokesman for the delegation requested that their women and children should be exempted the Rs3 fee for entry to hospital. Chaudhry Iqbal ordered that the fee should be reduced by one rupee, saying that it could not be waived altogether as it helped the camp administration maintain its services.

He also ordered that a doctor should be appointed to handle the emergency cases at night.

Mr Iqbal also directed District Administrator Chaudhry Sardar All Gorsi to carry out a DDT spray at the camp.

However, he regretted that Afghan refugees would not get drinking water free of cost, as charges had to be paid to meet the expenses incurred on pumping out water.

It was the first visit of Chaudhry Iqbal to Kot Chandan camp since he assumed his office two weeks ago.

Speaking to teachers and students at a prize-distribution ceremony in a school, Chaudhry Iqbal expressed his concern over low salaries of teachers. He observed that post-graduate teachers were being paid less than a Chowkidar. He promised to revise their salaries.

He recalled that the number of the girl-students used to be very high when they were given 3.5 litre of vegetable oil a month under the World Food Programme. The officer promised to pursue the agencies for restoring this facility for girl-students. He also ordered free transportation of high school students up to Kalabagh.

Gul Khan, the camp coordinator and education officer, informed the UNHCR officer that 10 boys and girls schools were catering to the educational needs of 728 girls and 1,120 boys.

While inspecting the camp, the UNHCR officer directed the field coordinator of Basic Education and Employable Skill Training (BEST) to re-launch that project. At a brief meeting with camp officers and employees, he emphasized that they should do everything they could for the inmates on humanitarian grounds.

Chaudhry Iqbal also suggested that the check-post constructed in 1983 in a jungle at Dara Tang should be given to owner of the land, as it was not viable for the UNHCR to bear the burden of two employees looking after the abandoned doorless and windowless building.

The commissioner also assured owners of the land on which the camp was located that the land abandoned by refugees returning home would be returned to them for cultivation.