Pak cracks down on illegal Afghan refugees
March 2nd, 2011 - 5:54 pm ICT by ANILahore, Mar 2(ANI): The Pakistan Government has launched a nationwide crackdown on Afghan refugees residing illegally in the country. A deadline was given to them to submit their data to the Office of Afghan refugees, which expired on February 28.
The Daily Times quoted concerned officials as saying that there were over a million illegal Afghan refugees in Punjab province alone, as they migrated from different parts of Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. There are Afghan colonies in almost every city of Pakistan now, and most of these settlers are not connected with citizens of the country, which has created a gray area for law enforcement agencies.
Government sources said the authorities are planning to issue National Identity Cards (NIC) to registered refugees in order to protect their rights and also to curb incidents of terrorism and crimes, which are mostly pinned on these refugees due to the alleged infiltration of terrorists into Pakistan from Afghanistan.”These cards will be similar to the Pakistani NICs but they will stipulate some restrictions relating to the refugees buying property in the country,” they elaborated.
Sources said the cards would also contain a backend database with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and concerned authorities to make it easier for anybody to verify the status of the cardholder.
The authorities believe that there are around two million registered Afghan refugees present in the country, out of whom 0.15 million live in Punjab. (ANI)
- Pakistan sent back 50,000 Afghan refugees in 2011 - Feb 15, 2012
- Pakistani transvestites get identity cards - Jan 26, 2012
- No proper procedure to help divorced Pak men to change their status in national IDs - Dec 20, 2009
- 150,000 Afghan refugees to leave Pakistan - Jun 18, 2012
- 80 Afghans held for illegally entering Pakistan - Nov 25, 2011
- 37 mn questionable entries in Pakistan electoral roll - Mar 09, 2011
- 90 per cent of over 52,000 prisoners in Pak's Punjab province have no identity card! - Nov 08, 2010
- Over Rs.10 bn distributed to Pakistan flood-hit - Nov 04, 2010
- Did Afghan govt use 'smuggled' voters from Pakistan to rig parliamentary elections? - Sep 22, 2010
- Afghanistan to open embassy in Greece - Jan 08, 2012
- 88 Afghan refugees in Pakistan found with AIDS - Jul 16, 2012
- Osama's Pakistani landlord had fake national ID card - May 02, 2011
- Pakistan repatriates over 3.7 mn Afghan refugees - Jan 04, 2012
- 50 hurt in Pakistan stampede - Sep 29, 2010
- Pak intelligence warns flood victims' duplicate ID's may be used by terrorists - Aug 21, 2010
Tags: 1980s, 1990s, afghan refugees, backend database, cardholder, colonies, crackdown, cracks, government sources, gray area, infiltration, law enforcement agencies, nadra, national database, national identity cards, nics, pakistan government, registration authority, settlers, two million