ISLAMABAD: Speakers at the concluding day of the 10th Pak-Afghan Youth Dialog
ue on Wednesday urged the Pa
kistani authorities to consider for citizen the cases of Afghans born in Pa
kistan or living in the country for over 20 years.
The participants also stressed the need for the Pa
kistani authorities to extend timeframe for repatriation of refugees from two years to five years.
They said that any forced repatriation in a short duration of time could damage the goodwill Pa
kistan had earned among the Afghan people over the course of the last four decades.
CRSS project director Aized Ali stated that advocacy for naturalisation of Afghans who were born in Pa
kistan or had spent over two decades in the country was a core aspect of the Pa
kistan-Afghanistan Track 1.5/II Dialogue Beyond Boundaries.
Daily Times correspondent Tahir Khan, a speaker from Pa
kistani delegation, said, “It has never been a policy of Pa
kistan to expel Afghan refugees or to force them to return. Pa
kistan has hosted the Afghan refugees out of goodwill and a sense of brotherhood for 40 years.”
He said the recent concerted efforts to repatriate refugees were taken in view of the threat posed by militants and the burden on Pa
kistani economy because of the counter terrorism efforts.
Khan mentioned that in an unofficial meeting with a visiting Afghan delegation last month, Pa
kistan’s SAFRON Minister had explicitly stated that Afghan refugees were never been involved in any terrorist attacks or organised crime in Pa
kistan.
He added that due to the urgency of the issue, Afghan CEO Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and President Ashraf Ghani had also recently made pledges to bring back Afghan refugees from both Pa
kistan and Iran in the next two years. At the moment, he said, Pa
kistan was hosting 1.4 million Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR statistics.
The discussion focused on achieving peace in the region and the role of the
youth in this regard, ending with a recognition that Pa
kistan considered the Afghan refugee crisis as a humanitarian issue, and not a political one. The dialogue concluded with the hope that Pa
kistani PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s expected visit to Kabul next month, in response to President Ghani’s invitation, could lead to a headway in resolution of longstanding issues including naturalisation of Afghan refugees living in Pa
kistan for over two decades.
The young Afghans present on the occasion thanked the Pa
kistani people for offering their homes to the refugees and allowing them freedom of movement. They also thanked the federal government for allowing the refugees educational and economic opportunities, stating that this was unlike Iran where Afghan refugees were restricted to their camps. Participants, most of whom were enrolled in universities in Pa
kistan, paid their grati
tude to the people of Pa
kistan for extending hospitality and feelings of brotherhood towards t
heir Afghan compatriots.
The 10thPak-Afghan
youth dialogue held under CRSS’s Afghan Studies Centre Initiative was focused on bringing together the
youth of two neighbouring countries on one platform and creating a better understanding between the two neighbors.
The dialogue featured
youth from Afghan cities of Mazar-i-Sharif, Baghlan, Nangarhar, and Kabul, and Pa
kistani cities of Lahore, Quetta, Rawalpindi, Swat, and Bannu.
Published in Daily Times, March 29th 2018.