ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: A census of all Afghans living in the country will begin from Feb 23 "to know the first firm figures on the number of Afghans in Pakistan," announced the secretary , Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), Sajid Hussain Chattha, here on Tuesday.

The 10-day census will also provide "details on when they (refugees) arrived, their place of origin, where they are now living, their current livelihoods and their intention to repatriate," he said addressing a press conference.

Mr Chattha said the information is essential for the development of policies for those Afghans who will remain in Pakistan after the current Tripartite Agreement between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and UNHCR expires in March 2006.

He said participation is mandatory for all Afghans who arrived in Pakistan since December 1, 1979 as a result of the Soviet invasion which sent Afghanistan into a downward spiral of violence. At present the government estimates three million Afghans live in all parts of Pakistan and the UNHCR estimates that about one million live in refugee camps.

The $750,000 census, which is being financed by the UNHCR, will help profile Afghan citizens in Pakistan, Mr Chattha added. He said that although the UNHCR has been assisting Afghan refugees in Pakistan for over 25 years there has never been a formal census or registration of all those who fled during the years of fighting in their homeland.

The census will ask Afghans if they intend to return to Afghanistan by the end of the UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation programme. The UNHCR has helped nearly 2.3 million Afghans to repatriate since 2002, he added.

Mr Chattha said that the UNHCR and the government of Pakistan agree that voluntary repatriation of Afghans is the preferred goal but both believe a substantial number will still be in Pakistan by the end of the Tripartite Agreement.

He said that the teams of enumerators will be visiting areas that have already been surveyed over the past two months in a mapping exercise that identified the residences of Afghans in all the four provinces.

Answering a question, he said that the computerized identity cards issued by NADRA would help in distinguishing the Afghans from Pakistani citizens, especially in the NWFP.

So far UNHCR and Commissioner for Afghan Refugees' teams have been monitoring all stages of the process and will be in the field continually during the actual census-taking to ensure that agreed procedures are followed.

The census will be conducted by the government's Population Census Organization.

A representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan, Guenet Guebre-Christos, said some 2,000 government employees - monitored by the commissioner for Afghan Refugees, UNHCR staff, and independent observers - will start going house-to-house on 23rd February to record the number of all Afghans who have arrived in Pakistan over the past quarter century.-APP