The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FO), Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan, said Friday that the transient stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan could not be an “indefinite agreement.”
In addition, he declared that it was Pakistan’s “sovereign right to decide who we allow in our country and for how long.”
Khan made these comments during a media conference, where he was asked about Germany’s accusation that Pakistan had deported more than 2,000 Afghan refugees waiting to travel to Germany.
The FO pointed out that Germany had pledged to take a certain number of Afghan refugees and that the country had said that the issue of Afghan refugees was taken seriously. He expressed the hope that “this seriousness will translate into action, and that the German … accelerates.”
Khan said: “We are willing to work with Germany because we have a relationship of decades of age; based on goodwill and mutual respect. We will see what we can do.”
But he also said that the transient stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, hoping to travel to other countries, could not be an “indefinite agreement.”
“It is our sovereign right to decide who we allow in our country and for how long. We are willing to work with our friends with empathy and mutual understanding. But it cannot be an open agreement.”
In response to another question about the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the refugee chief who asks Pakistan to stop the deportation of Afghan refugees in the midst of relief activities after a mortal earthquake in Afghanistan, she said that the spokeswoman said: “With respect to this notion of expulsion of Afghans, I would say that we have a person in general and it is not to attack any person. Be illegally illegally illegally illegally illegally illegally illegally. [staying] In Pakistan he will be sent back. It doesn’t matter where he or her is. There is no focus of Afghans.
“This is the global norm, and this is our sovereign decision with respect to who we allow to enter or remain in our country. Then, anyone who is illegal, we will repatriate that person.”
Last month, Pakistan began to deport up to one million Afghan documented refugees before their deadline for them to leave, after the announcement of the Interior Ministry of July 31 that the registration test (by) card holders, the last category of Afghans who legally reside in Pakistan without visas, became little advanced residents after their June 30 cards expired on June 30.
“Germany should take these refugees as soon as possible,” added the spokesman. “The Pakistani law will apply to the Afghan living here. We will decide what to do with refugees in Pakistan.”
Pakistan is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1951. On the other hand, it operates under the Law of Foreigners, which allows authorities to arrest, retain and deport foreigners, including refugees and asylum applicants, who do not have valid documentation.
In addition, the spokesman said that Kabul would need to seriously take the issue of terrorism in Afghanistan, stating: “There are still terrorist paradises in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan knows how to defend his territory and his people,” Khan said.
“An operation was carried out in the border area with Afghanistan against terrorists,” he added, referring to drone attacks allegedly carried out by Pakistan on August 28. “Afghanistan needs to stop allowing its territory to be used for acts of terrorism.”
Islamabad has repeatedly warned Kabul to prevent his soil from being used to organize attacks in Pakistan, and that he is totally able to attack the terrorists who carry out such attacks.
During the recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) of the Council of State Chiefs, the members reaffirmed their commitment to the establishment of the country as an independent, neutral and peaceful state, free of terrorism, war and drugs, and expressed their preparation to support the efforts of the international community to guarantee peace and development in the country.
“Member States reiterated that the formation of an inclusive government with a broad participation of representatives of all ethnopolitical groups of Afghan society is the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the country,” the statement said.
