{"id":20289,"date":"2023-11-01T21:28:06","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T21:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/forced-deportation-faces-legal-challenge-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2023-11-01T21:28:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T21:28:06","slug":"forced-deportation-faces-legal-challenge-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/forced-deportation-faces-legal-challenge-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced deportation faces legal challenge | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nISLAMABAD:
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Pakistan Peoples Party former senator Farhatullah Babar and others on Wednesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking suo motu against the caretaker government\u2019s policies of mass deportation that currently focuses on repatriating \u201cillegal\u201d Afghans back to their country.<\/p>\n

Petitioners challenged the caretakers\u2019 mandate to formulate such a policy against \u201cillegal residents and asylum seekers\u201d living in the country for decades. \u201cIt is reversal of Pakistan\u2019s 40-year-old policy,\u201d they said, claiming that no provision of law permits such mass deportation without a \u201crobust mechanism\u201d of differentiating between refugees and birthright citizens.<\/p>\n

This \u201ccoercive deportation\u201d, they claimed, went against the Constitution, which protects the fundamental rights of residents \u201cirrespective of their citizenship status.\u201d The petition pointed out the government\u2019s \u201cfailure\u201d to differentiate between the illegal immigrants and birthright citizens that contradicted with Section 4 of the Citizenship Act, 1951.<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Afghan refugee moves IHC against deportation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The petition contended that the policy was against international conventions and laws.<\/p>\n

The petitioners also questioned the legal standing of the formulation of apex committee and its directives regarding deportation.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the mandate of the interim government, they claimed that this issue of \u201cillegal\u201d residents had been put before the elected governments who did not repatriate \u201d4.4 million Afghans.\u201d<\/p>\n

They requested the apex court to halt government\u2019s \u201charassment\u201d of refugees or asylum seekers, claiming that those who were born in Pakistan have claim to birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n

The petitioners also included social activists Jibran Nasir, Imaan Zainab Mazari, and former MNA Mohsin Dawar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n