UNDUE WORLD PRESSURE ON PAKISTAN ON AFGHAN DPS

Editorial

There are no two opinions that the Afghans were lured or forced to become refugees in Pakistan and Iran for political reasons only to give a bad name for the then Afghanistan nationalist Government that had overthrown monarchy in their country. Senior most Pakistani administration officials paid secret visits to neighbouring districts and areas of Afghanistan and provided incentives to Afghan elders to become refugees so that propaganda campaign is launched the world over under the leadership of the United States. Thus the Afghan refugees are not genuine refugees and they were facing no threat to their life and property from the Government forces at the initial period of what the Afghans claimed ‘Saur Revolution’ However, some of the young Afghans were recruited as mercenaries or as guerrillas to fight the Kabul Government backed by Moscow and its allies. It started the civil war and the war is not only continuing to this date, it had clearly spilled over on Pakistani territory. The Taliban are off shoot of the Afghan civil war and they are fighting the security forces of Pakistan. Pakistan suffered the most at the hands of Afghans and their militant allies in the Pakistani establishment. It was the security establishment of Pakistan that never allowed the Afghans to be confined to refugee camps for military reasons. They were deliberately allowed to mix up with the local population under the cover so that they should operate inside Afghanistan and carry out covert operations. Now the Afghans have become a monster for Pakistan. They pose a serious threat to security and stability of Pakistan. No Pakistani will believe that Afghans are loyal to Pakistani State. Now the world community had launched a campaign to accommodate the Afghans in Pakistan and shelve the plan to repatriate them voluntarily or involuntarily. Pakistan Government remained under pressure and it agreed to allow the Afghans to stay back till 2012. Now the period is over and they must go. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, while addressing an international gathering in Australia earlier this year categorically demanding voluntary or involuntary repatriation of all Afghans as they are not acceptable to Pakistan any more. The Prime Minister of Pakistan went to an extent demanding that the Afghans should be shifted in camps inside Afghanistan and they should return to their hometowns when the conditions permit them. In no case, they should stay back in Pakistan from now on. They are an economic burden on the weak Pakistani economy. Why should Pakistan feed millions of illegal Afghan immigrants? Officials of the UN organizations had confirmed that 80 per cent of the voluntarily repatriated Afghans had returned to Pakistan, mainly in Balochistan. They got the money and Ration and returned back on their job. They are economic refugees and facing no threat to their life in Afghanistan. The only solution to this problem is that the Afghans should be confined to the refugee camps first under the supervision of the UNHCR and later on the camps should be shifted inside Afghanistan, far away from the Pakistan borders, with a guarantee that they will not return. The economic cost of Afghan refugees or illegal immigrants is very heavy on Balochistan. They are enjoying free health care from all the major Government hospitals, mainly in Quetta. It amounts to more than a half of the health budget of Balochistan. More than half of the Government hospital beds are occupied by the Afghans. They destroyed the economy, agriculture, range land, forest, destroyed the labour market and chased out the local work force in Balochistan and elsewhere. Finally, they had changed the demography of Balochistan and now it had reached at a delicate balance undermining the legitimate interest of Baloch people as a majority on their own homeland. The Pakistani establishment had deliberately provided CNIC and other papers to Afghans as a tool to keep Baloch people under pressure for political reasons. Now the world community is using its additional pressure to ensure that Balochs should be converted into a minority on their own fatherland by allowing the Afghans to stay back in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan. There is valid reason for Balochs opposing presence of Afghans on Baloch soil. If Pakistan Government permits Afghans to stay back, they should be allowed to settle in the Federal Capital and close to the residence of President and Prime Minister and not in Balochistan.