Islamabad [Pakistan], May 15 (ANI): Approximately 1.3 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated by the Pakistan government in a deportation drive launched since November 2023, Parliamentary Secretary Mukhtar Ahmad Malik said on Wednesday, The Express Tribune reported.

The Pakistan government initially said that it was focusing on expelling foreigners without legal documentation and that other categories, like the Afghan Citizen Card (ACC)--a document launched in 2017 to provide temporary legal status to Afghan refugees--would be included later.

In response to a question raised by lawmaker Anjum Aqeel Khan during a parliamentary session, Malik said around 3 million Afghan refugees were staying in Pakistan., The Express Tribune reported.

Malik further said, 'Of these, 813,000 hold Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) while 1.3 million possess Proof of Registration (PoR) cards.'

He said that Afghan nationals who want to travel to Pakistan for education, medical treatment, or business purposes are welcome to do so, if they obtain a Pakistani visa and have valid documentation with them.

Earlier this year, Pakistan's Interior Ministry urged all 'illegal foreigners' and ACC holders to leave the country before March 31, warning that they would otherwise be deported from April 1. Subsequently, authorities started deporting thousands of Afghan nationals from all parts of Pakistan. Pakistan has hosted more than 2.8 million Afghan refugees who crossed the border during four decades of conflict in their homeland, The Express Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, leaders of Pakhtun nationalist parties in April urged Pakistan to halt the deportation of Afghan refugees, calling on the government to stop sending back people who have lived in the country for over four decades, Dawn reported.

Addressing a joint press conference, Asghar Khan Achakzai of the Awami National Party (ANP), Nasarullah Zerey of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Ahmed Jan Khan of the National Democratic Movement, and Noor Bacha of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) said that Afghan refugees are protected under Pakistan's Citizenship Act and possess basic rights, as reported by the Dawn.

The leaders criticised the ongoing crackdown against Afghan refugees, many of whom were born and raised in Pakistan, and expressed concern over the economic and political conditions in the country. Citing rulings by the Federal Shariat Court and the Peshawar High Court, they demanded that the government comply with the courts' decisions and immediately stop deportations. (ANI)