Government incurring Rs 26 million monthly expenditures on two million Afghan refugees

The Senate was informed on Tuesday that government of Pakistan was incurring an amount of Rs 26 million to meet monthly expenditures of more than two million Afghan refugees currently residing in the country.
Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Shaukatullah informed the House during question hour that as per fresh exercise carried out through National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) during August 18, 2010 to March 31, 2011, a total of 2.052 million registered Afghan refugees are currently residing in Pakistan.
Giving province-wise details, he said that 1.201 million Afghan refugees were residing in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 0.491 million in Balochistan, 0.091 million in Sindh, 0.228 million in Punjab and 0.041 million in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Regarding the monthly expenditures being incurred on taking care of the refuges, the Minister informed the House that Rs 40 million was being incurred by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and Rs 26 million by the government of Pakistan.
He said that there exists a tripartite agreement among Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR, according to which the repatriation of Afghan refugees on "voluntary" basis would be completed by December 31, 2012. To encourage and motivate the Afghan refugees to repatriate, he said that the repatriation package of 100 dollars per person/returnee has been enhanced to 150 dollars per returnee, effective from January 2011.
He said that the UNHCR would give the amount to returnee to Afghanistan. Regarding the steps to repatriate the refugees, he said that the international community has been and is being pursuing effectively on each available forum for enhanced and continued support to ensure maximum repatriation.
Besides, the Afghan government has been asked to allocate sufficient funds for rehabilitation of the returnee, he said, adding that the cabinet has approved a comprehensive "Management and Repatriation Policy/Strategy for Afghan Refugees living in Pakistan-2010-2012," which is under implementation. He said that an effective entry and exit system is being followed on the Afghan border; however, added that a bio metric system will soon be introduced on the Pak-Afghan border.
He further said that the government was also considering giving work permit to the Afghan refugees as many students and Ulema are living in Pakistan with a view to keep regular check on border crossing. To another question, the Minister for Safron said that military operation was underway against terrorists in the tribal areas and the government was taking all measures to give compensation to the affectees of the operation.
He said that Rs 0.4 million each was being paid as compensation to 5,821 owners of fully damaged houses in Mohmand and Bajaur Agencies while Rs 160,000 each to 4,458 owners of partially damaged houses in the two agencies under the Housing Uniform States Subsidy Project. He said the payment under the project will be completed by the end of this year and a similar compensation was also being anticipated for other agencies, once the situation is improved enough to allow survey to find out the number of fully or partially damaged houses and factories.