ISLAMABAD, April 19: Visiting UNHCR chief Ruud Lubbers in his meeting with President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Monday is said to have raised the issue of Afghan refugees who have established business in the country.
He wanted the president to allow these refugees to continue their economic activities on a long-term basis. Gen Musharraf is said to have given a cautious response to the proposal.
Well-placed sources said the UNHCR chief gave the proposal for allowing the Afghans who had established businesses to continue the economic activity which he said could be a "win-win situation" for both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr Lubbers, on his sixth visit to the region since taking charge of the UN refugee agency, arrived in Pakistan following a visit to Afghanistan.
President Gen Musharraf and Mr Lubbers also discussed the security situation in the border areas of Pakistan, a schedule for closing down of refugee camps, forthcoming elections in Afghanistan and the participation of Afghans based in Pakistan in the elections.
On the Afghanistan question, Gen Pervez Musharraf reiterated Pakistan's continued commitment for the Bonn process. Later, speaking at a press conference, Mr Lubbers announced the schedule to close refugee camps in Pakistan.
He said that by Sept 1, the recently-established camps in the border areas of Pakistan would be closed down. Pakistan had asked the UNHCR to look into the matter of refugee camps and expedite repatriation of refugees citing security reasons, an official told Dawn.
On the issue of Afghan elections tentatively to be held in September, Mr Lubbers said the UNHCR had formally requested Pakistan to facilitate participation of Afghan refugees based here in the elections.
In reply to a question, he said the exact number of refugees in the country could only be a guess, but official statistics put the number at some two million. Out of these, some 1.1 million were in the refugee camps, he said. Answering a question about budgetary allocations, Mr Lubbers said the agency was reducing the assistance for Afghans in Pakistan and that would act as an incentive for people to go back.