ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly was informed on Tuesday that one million Afghans are living in Pakistan illegally in addition to the 1.7 million registered refugees scattered all over the country.

Officials of the ministry of states and frontier regions (Safron) told a meeting of the PAC presided over by its chairman Nadeem Afzal Gondal that the data had been collected through district coordination officers, police and other government agencies.

About 450,000 unregistered Afghans are living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 350,000 in Balochistan.

In reply to a question, Joint Secretary of the ministry Dr Imran Zaib said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees did not press for granting permanent residence to these Afghans because many of them were living here for the past 30 years. The government also had no such plan, he added.

Noor Alam Khan of the PPP, who hails from Peshawar, said Afghan refugees were not only involved in increasing incidents of terrorism but also proving a burden for the local agriculture and spoiling social fabric.

He said the ministry was not interested in their repatriation just to receive international donations.

Officials told the PAC that the Safron ministry was facing difficulties in managing Afghan refugees for paucity of funds because it was yet to receive $600 million promised by the international agencies.

In response to a question, Safron Secretary Habib Khan said a four-member ministerial committee was responsible for enlisting unregistered refugees and their repatriation to Afghanistan.

He said Nadra had cancelled about 90,000 CNICs acquired by Afghan refugees illegally.

Director General of Federal Audit Dr Asif told the meeting that the ministry used funds on air conditioners for the office of the secretary and foreign trips of its officials instead of spending them on the welfare of refugees.

According to one audit para, an unspent amount of Rs100 million was lying in one of the many accounts of the ministry for two decades without any authorisation of the finance ministry.

The Safron secretary said a meeting would be held on Wednesday with the finance ministry officials to settle the amount.

The committee criticised the interior secretary for skipping its meeting for a third time.