Types of Afghans residing in Pakistan


With us, all Afghans are seen from one point of view, but there are many types of Afghans living in Pakistan. The first type is those Pakhtuns whose ancestors migrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan before the establishment of Pakistan in the distant past. Thus, they are Afghans by descent, but due to being born in Pakistan, they are Pakistanis from day one.


The second type is the Afghans who came to Pakistan in 1979. Most of them are of nomadic origin and are often involved in the cloth business. These people have become regular Pakistani citizens. They have Pakistani citizenship and have become a regular part of Pakistani society.


The third category is the refugees who came here after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. These people are regularly registered with the UNHCR and the Pakistani government has been receiving substantial aid in their name. Among them who were influential Afghan commanders, many of them are billionaires. Many of them have secretly obtained Pakistani documents and have properties in Pakistan. For example, in the federal capital Islamabad, after Imran Khan, the house in the highest place belongs to an Afghan commander.


The fourth type is the Afghans, most of them former Khalq and Pargham Party affiliates, who came to Pakistan after the overthrow of the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan and the occupation of the Mujahideen. And for some, Pakistan's Pakhtun nationalist parties have performed this service.


The fifth type is those Afghan liberals or ordinary Afghans who came to Pakistan after the first occupation of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Some of them returned to Afghanistan after the end of 9/11 and the Taliban regime, and some remained in Pakistan. Prominent among them have gone to Afghanistan after the re-conquest of the Taliban, but a large number, even some relatives of the officials of the Taliban government, are still living in Pakistan. Some time ago, a Taliban cabinet minister's relative got married, so the ceremony was held in Peshawar instead of Kabul.


The seventh type is the anti-Taliban ordinary Afghans, people working in the government of Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, journalists and artists who came to Pakistan after the Taliban took over. Either they cannot live under the Taliban regime or they are afraid that if they go back, the Taliban will put them in jail or kill them.


The eighth category is of those Afghans who were promised asylum by the US and other western countries and they moved to Pakistan for parking, but the US or Canada, etc., have not yet issued them visas for their countries.


Ever since the Pakistani state decided to evict all illegally residing Afghans in response to the Taliban's non-cooperation with the Islamic Emirates on the TTP issue, the most worried are not the Taliban supporters but those who fall into the seventh and eighth categories. They are Afghans. Because after the US occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban and their supporters came to Afghan Pakistan, they have computerized Muhajir cards or some Pakistanis have created citizenship documents, while in the seventh and eighth category, those who came to Pakistan due to the fear of the Taliban. There are no computerized refugee cards because the government of Pakistan had abandoned its policy of accepting new refugees and giving them refugee status. When these people were coming to Pakistan, they got short-term medical or visit visas and most of the visas have expired. Most of them tried to extend the visas, but the current situation is that Pakistan visas are being sold for one to two thousand dollars in Kabul. Similarly, the extension of visas for new arrivals of Afghans living in Pakistan for two years last year was and is like bringing the lion's share. I and some of our colleagues have been trying for the last two years to extend the visas of Afghan journalists and artists coming here, but have not been successful so far.


Of course, the Pakistani authorities will sympathize with the seventh and eighth category Afghans and they will be more angry with the sixth category Afghans, but due to the negligence of the Pakistani government during the last two years, most of the illegal immigrants are seventh and eighth category refugees, but the sixth category (Taliban and their supporters) Afghans have either become Pakistanis by producing Pakistani documents or they have taken computerized Muhajir cards or they have long-term visas. Will show documents or long term visas. According to an estimate, more than five thousand Taliban have obtained Pakistani documents and some people sitting in the cabinet of the Islamic Emirate also have Pakistani documents, one proof of which is that when Mullah Akhtar Mansoor came to Pakistan from Iran, the American drone in Balochistan. When he was targeted, he had a computerized passport of Pakistan. The question is whether these computerized documents have been canceled or not before this move related to refugees. . If illegally generated ID cards have been cancelled, have details been provided to all police stations? The second important thing is that the most deserving of our sympathy should be the Afghans who left their homes and came to Pakistan in the last two years or were temporarily parked here waiting to go to America and Western countries. How can you differentiate? Federal Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti has repeatedly instructed the police not to harass those who have legal documents, but one question is what will happen to those who make legal documents illegally and the other question is that the police under the administration of the provinces. If so, how is the federal government making sure that Afghans are not being harassed for bribes in the provinces?