ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The government has decided to repatriate all Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan by 2009.

This was announced at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Committee held here on Thursday.

The committee – headed by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao –devised a strategy to send all Afghan refugees back to their homeland in three years, from 2007 to 2009.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that the strategy would be presented before Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the near future after which the process of repatriation would start. Under the strategy, four camps of Afghan refugees located in Balochistan and the NWFP will be removed in the ongoing year. In the first phase, two of them -- one in each province -- will be wrapped up in March. The meeting was attended by Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammed Rind, Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah, Secretary Safron Sajid Hussain Chattha, Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khalid Khattak, Chief Commissioner Afghan Refugees Nayer Agha and Joint Secretary Interior Ministry Mohammed Anwar Khan.

APP adds: Mr Sherpao said peace and stability in Afghanistan was in vital interest of Pakistan and the region.

Afghans are our brothers and we have hosted refugees for 25 years. We want the refugees to return voluntarily in a dignified manner and take part in the reconstruction of their country, he said.

According to official figures, about 2.4 million Afghans are living in Pakistan – one million in camps and 1.4 million in urban areas. Since 2002, about 2.8 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated to their homeland.