I would like to start with the fact that when migrants move from one country to another, they create a lot of problems for the local people and that is exactly what happened with Pakistan. I will not focus too much on the history of the arrival of Afghan refugees here because almost all know that when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, Afghans would start coming here to Pakistan and then when the United States invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Again, many Afghans turned to Pakistan, especially in Balochistan.
And when refugees go to a country, it is the responsibility of the country to register them, then it is sad to say that our country did not do that and many Afghan refugees entered Pakistan without registration. It was a great injustice to our local people. Now the most important thing that will be done here is that since Balochistan was getting very close, people started setting up their camp here.
A large number of Afghan refugees belong to the Pashtun Nation, so they chose to stay in the Pashtun belt. On the one hand, the refugees were not registered and on the other hand, our NADRA started making ID cards for the unsuspecting refugees and the local committee started making them local. Now don’t ask why NADRA and the local committee did this because only they can give the answer.
There are many issues, such as social, security, religious, but the two most important are political and education. When it comes to politics, Afghan migrants now have ID cards and are able to legally participate in any political process. So it is no longer a secret that Afghan refugees in the Pashtun belt, who have now made ID cards, play an important part in the election. That is a turning point in a candidate’s winning and losing. And the important thing is that the number of Afghan refugees is slowly increasing and the day is not far when Afghan refugees will be in our assemblies and will govern the local people. In fact, it is nothing short of heartbreaking. The second thing is education.
The higher authorities are requested to either register all Afghans or at least allocate a quota system for Afghan refugees so that the local people get their due.
HUNZLA KAKAR
Zhob
