ISLAMABAD, Aug 15 ((APP): Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday called for formulating a national policy on repatriation of Afghan refugees to their home country.
Responding to various points of order in the National Assembly, he said around 3.5 million Afghan nationals, both registered and unregistered, were living in Pakistan for the last 40 years.
They were treated like brothers by Pakistanis, he added.
Nisar said repatriation of Afghan refugees was a complicated issue.
All the chief ministers would be invited to a high level meeting
to discuss the issue of their repatriation and make a national policyin that regard.
He said refugees were an international issue. Elsewhere in the world they were confined to camps, but in Pakistan the Afghan refugees had not only set up their businesses but some of them had also managed to get Pakistani identity cards illegally.
Majority of the Afghan refugees, he said, were peaceful, however, some of them were found involved in illegal activities.
