Ever since the withdrawal of America from Afghanistan, there is a thought in Pakistan that all Afghan refugees should leave Pakistan in a dignified manner. However on contrary to this Afghan refugees living here are trying to acquire the citizenship of Pakistan, for this purpose they are approaching the courts besides that they are adopting various illegal methods.
The government is well aware of the above situation. So it is trying to prevent the tactics of Afghan refugees to get their citizenship, including the possible steps for their return. According to the published news the federal government has decided to approve the amendments in the Pakistani citizenship law.
In order to prevent the growing serious problems regarding the citizenship of Afghan refugee children, the federal government has decided to change the citizenship law after the amendments. According to the amendment law, Pakistani citizenship will be given only to the child born in Pakistan whose parents have Pakistani citizenship. Sources have said that according to the citizenship law a child born in Pakistan is entitled to the citizenship of Pakistan, may be the child’s parents not hold Pakistani citizenship. Through the said law Afghan citizens are coming to Pakistan and are getting citizenship of Pakistan through the birth of children.
In that regard many Afghan refugee women have also approached the courts. The increasing population in the country has been described as a serious problem in this regard and giving Pakistani citizenship to Afghan children is increasing the problems.
After consultation with the federal institutions the amendment draft of citizenship will be sent to the parliament for legal approval and after the approval of the parliament it will be implemented.
It should be remembered that suggestions about that law were also sought from the provincial governments earlier. Most Afghan women have approached the courts regarding the citizenship of their children after marrying Pakistani men.
In view of this situation the government has now decided to enact legislation to stop the Pakistani citizenship requests of Afghans. On the other hand the international community should support Pakistan to send back the Afghan refugees who have become a burden on Pakistan’s population and economy. It should be remembered that according to unconfirmed reports there are around three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan who should be sent back to their homeland but whenever the government decides to take action against these Afghan refugees the United Nation, domestic and foreign human rights Organizations start efforts to be lenient with these Afghan refugees but Pakistan is not helped to take care of these refugees due to which its burden on our economy is increasing.
Therefore it is necessary that issue should be raised at the federal level now for the peaceful future of the region. It is necessary to stop infiltration from Afghanistan to Pakistan and they should be sent back to their homeland. Due to the presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the peace and order situation has become very complicated because there may be facilitators among these Afghan refugees who are doing terrorism. Apart from that there is a large number of parents who refuse polio vaccine among the Afghan refugees due to which both Pakistan and Afghanistan have not been able to get rid of this disease.
So it has become necessary to discourage the citizenship of Afghan refugees and take all domestic and international stakeholders including the Taliban government into confidence to pave the way for their repatriation. If the Afghan refugees are allowed to stay in Pakistan for a few more years it will not only increase the economic problems in the country but also the peace of the region will continue to be in danger.
Now the governments and the people of both sides have to take this drastic step for their best future so that long lasting peace can be established in the region.
