The main hindrance in repatriation of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan is shortage of funds and the Government of Pakistan has decided to contact non-donor countries in this respect. Secretary States and Frontier Regions Pir Bakhsh Jamali informed this to the sub-committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday. The committee took up the appropriation accounts of 1998-99 for discussion under Convenor Shahida Akhtar.
Replying to a question of Member Committee Mian Abdul Manan, the Secretary said it was for the first time that incumbent Government of Afghanistan owned Afghan refugees in Pakistan during a meeting held in August and pledged to cooperate with Pakistan for safe repatriation of those Afghan refugees. He further revealed that UN's Refugee Agency (UNHCR) had shortage of funds required for the repatriation of the Afghan refugees; therefore, the government had decided to seek financial help from conventional countries (non-donors).
He said around 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan. These Afghan refugees have been provided Proof of Registration (PoR) cards by NADRA. The government has also launched a project of Rs 550 million for registration of unregistered Afghan refugees of which Rs 170 million was released by the government.
Responding to another question, the secretary said facilitation centres for the registration of Afghan refugees had been established in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. He said that application forms of those Afghan refugees would be entertained which would be verified by Afghan Embassy in Pakistan. The Secretary further informed the committee members that the government could not be able to stop the return of those Afghan refugees from Afghanistan who crossed the border to escape from the harsh winter in Afghanistan and during the harvesting season. "It is good development that the number of voluntarily return of Afghan refugees has gone up to 100,000 which had not exceeded 14,000 the past years," he said.