PAKISTAN government has decided to grant nationality to all Pakistan-born refugees of Bangladeshi and Afghan origins staying there for decades.
Prime Minister Mr Imran Khan on Sunday made this announcement during his maiden visit to Karachi, saying the Bangladeshi and Afghan refugees who were born in Pakistan would get National Identity Cards (NICs) and passports. “There is no social security system and hundreds of thousands of unregistered Bangladeshis and Afghans are living in this metropolis. They cannot get ID cards and passports and this is why they are denied jobs,” the Pakistani Premier said.
Pakistan is home to more than 1.39 million registered Afghan refugees, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), many of staying there for more than 30 years. At first they started pouring into Pakistan fleeing the Soviet invasion in the 1970s.
But Bangladeshi migrants’ perspective is totally different. There are more than 2.5 million Bangladeshis in Pakistan, most of whom live in Karachi. Many of them were stranded in the city after the Liberation War in 1971 when Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, achieved independence.
What is significant is that — the announcement of Imran Khan is a marked departure from the policy followed by previous governments. Several Pakistani political analysts think, it could invite a confrontation with the country’s powerful military that often blamed refugees for violence and crimes in Pakistan.
During the Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s regime, she ordered a crackdown and deportation on Bangladeshi immigrants. Her action created tensions in both countries. In the wake of heavy criticism of the Muslim political parties in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was ultimately forced to abandon the order. The subsequent Pakistani governments had refused to take them back as their citizens.
We would draw the Prime Minister’s attention to those who were Pakistanis and opted for Pakistan after Bangladesh became a newly independent country. The arrangement reached through international Red Cross that those who would not accept Bangladesh as their country and chose to remain Pakistanis should be entitled to go back to Pakistan.
These people are now in Bangladesh most illegally and miserably as refugees in Bangladesh. It is legitimate that they were Pakistanis and they did not want to take citizenship of Bangladesh so Pakistan under a legal obligation to accept them as citizens of Pakistan.
Though it’s a belated change in Pakistan’s policy, we congratulate Mr Imran Khan for being just and sensible in awarding nationality to Bangladeshi and Afghan migrants. At the same breath we hope similar enlightened decision will be taken in respect of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh. It is the call of humanity because these are not feeling at home here for their collaboration with Pakistan army during the Liberation War.
