ISLAMABAD: Despite complaining that terrorists can easily mix in Afghan refugees camps, the government on Wednesday decided to extend the stay of over 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan for another two months.

The decision to give the sixth extension to Afghan refugees was made in the federal cabinet meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, said the PM’s spokesman.

It was also agreed to extend the period for the proof of registration (PoR) cards for Afghan refugees living in Pakistan which automatically lost their legal status on Dec 31, 2017.

The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) had sought one-year extension to continue their legal stay in the host country.

The Afghan refugees had already availed extension in their stay five times. The government introduced the PoR card system for the registered refugees to legalise their stay and protect them from harassment at the hands of law enforcement agencies. The card system was introduced with the assistance of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2009.

The government has commitments with the UNHCR and the Afghan government that there would be no forced return of refugees despite expiry of PoR cards, and that it would facilitate their return through the UN-sponsored voluntary repatriation programme.

The meeting observed that the voluntary repatriation programme under which the UN agency paid $200 cash assistance to every refugee upon return to their country, was going very slowly as only 48,000 refugees went back to their country under the voluntary return programme in 2017 as compared to repatriation of around 400,000 refugees in 2016. In addition, around 200,000 undocumented Afg­han nationals also returned to their country in the same year.

On the other hand, the National Database and Registra­tion Authority (Nadra) has registered 670,000 undocumented Afghan nationals during the six-month-long drive across the country. The authority has registered 350,000 Afghan citizens in Khyber Pakhtun­khwa of the total 670,000 registered people.

During the meeting, the cabinet also took some other decisions, including approval of extension of prime minister’s fee reimbursement scheme for less developed areas.

Chairman of the Higher Education Commission infor­med the cabinet that the scheme would be extended to 114 districts in various parts of the country, including Balochistan, Sindh, Khy­ber Pakhtun­khwa, south Pun­jab, Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting also appro­ved a memorandum of unde­rstanding between the Chinese Academy of Scien­ces and Pakistan Meteoro­logical Department to promote science, technology and innovation cooperation.

It also approved an agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and Republic of Sao Tome and Principe on bilateral consultation as well as a cultural agreement between Pakistan and China for the year 2018-22.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2018