Dawn.com,<\/em> was moved under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.<\/p>\nIt named 15 respondents, including the federation through the caretaker premier, the government\u2019s apex committee through the interior secretary, all four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory, the chief commissioner for Afghan refugees, and the National Database and Registration Authority through its chairman.<\/p>\n
It said that the government\u2019s decision to expel immigrants was causing a \u201cmassive violation of fundamental rights of around 4.4 million persons of Afghan origin who are for the time being in Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said that the decision amounted to reversing Pakistan\u2019s \u201c45-year-old policy of extending hospitality to refugees, asylum seekers and even unregistered immigrants \u2014 a strategic decision which falls completely beyond the limited constitutional mandate of the caretaker government\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince this repatriation is not voluntary, nor is the government of Afghanistan facilitating the same, it is possible that many of those being deported will die of cold and hunger \u2014 amongst them would be Pakistani citizens and genuine refugees who never stood a chance to prove their legal claims,\u201d the plea said.<\/p>\n
It said that the issue of deporting undocumented Afghans had been brought up before elected federal cabinets that had opted for \u201cmore nuanced and humane solutions\u201d rather than a mass deportation policy.<\/p>\n
The petition said that while the government\u2019s decision was \u201cframed in somewhat neutral language\u201d it was \u201cobviously targeted at the millions of Afghan refugees who are compelled by circumstances to live in Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely disturbing that instead of doing its job \u2014 preparing for elections \u2014 the caretaker government is taking strategic policy decisions whose consequence will be borne by the people of this country,\u201d the plea said.<\/p>\n
The plea urged the court to declare the government\u2019s decision to expel illegal immigrants as \u201cillegal and unconstitutional\u201d and to set it aside.<\/p>\n
It also urged the court to restrain the federation from \u201cdetaining, forcefully deporting or otherwise harassing anyone who is either a refugee or an asylum seeker\u201d and possessed proof of registration (PoR), Afghan citizenship cards (ACC), an asylum seeker application issued by the UNHCR or a pre-screening slip issued by its partners.<\/p>\n
It also called on the court to restrain the federation from \u201cdetaining, forcefully deporting or otherwise harassing anyone who was born in Pakistan and has a claim to birthright citizenship\u201d.<\/p>\n
It urged the court to direct the federation to permit UNHCR and its partner organisations to register and \u201cexpeditiously process and decide all asylum seeking applications filed by foreigners presently residing in
\nPakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also called for the federation to be directed to coordinate with federal and provincial law enforcement agencies to \u201csecure the fundamental rights of all
\npersons for the time being in Pakistan\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a post on social media platform X, Nasir said that the petitioners had contended that protection be provided to registered refugees, while those whose asylum applications were pending should not be deported and their applications be expedited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have further sought protection for all those who we consider have a birthright to be considered Pakistan nationals having been born in this country,\u201d he said. Nasir said that Advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani would be leading the case for the petitioners.<\/p>\n
Nasir also shared a press release issued by the petitioners which said that they were challenging the caretaker government\u2019s \u201cunconstitutional, illegal and inhumane policy of refoulement of at-risk asylum seekers and refugees residing in Pakistan since the past several decades\u201d.<\/p>\n
They said that not only was this policy beyond the interim government\u2019s mandate, it was also \u201cdraconian and in contravention of national and international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
The petitioners said that those who were in possession of PoR cards and other relevant documentation were being \u201charassed, detained and expelled\u201d under the garb of expelling those who were without.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forceful banishing of a people, including women and children, several of whom have been born on Pakistani soil [\u2026] and identify as Afghan only on the basis of ethnicity, from a place they so endearingly call home, is unprecedented.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch an arbitrary policy exhibits the sheer highhandedness of a state seemingly undeterred in demonizing a people on the basis of ethnicity, and raises a grave apprehension for each citizen of Pakistan who is now left at the mercy of a state which sacrifices equality, justice and fundamental human rights at the altar of ethnicity, caste and creed,\u201d the petitioners said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is nothing less than a crime to remain silent over the refoulement of fellow humans to imminent misery and persecution,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several politicians and rights activists filed a petition with the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday challenging the \u201cmass deportation\u201d of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers by the caretaker government. The petitioners include PPP\u2019s Farhatullah Babar, Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, rights activist Amina Masood Janjua, National Democratic Movement Chairman Mohsin Dawar, lawyer Jibran Nasir, Rohail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/01223555894e990.jpg?r=223603","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}