<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can someone living in Pakistan for two to four decades sell everything and leave?\u201d asked senior journalist Zia Ur Rehman, echoing a question that many have been wondering since the government announced the November 1 deadline for \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d to leave the country \u2014 a policy that has mainly targeted Afghans living in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Rehman was a panelist at the \u2018No Country to Call Home: Behind Pakistan\u2019s Expulsion of Afghan Refugees\u2019 talk hosted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) on Thursday.<\/p>\n
More than 370,000 Afghans have left Pakistan<\/a> since October 1 \u2014 a policy that has received strong support<\/a> across the country.<\/p>\n Rehman \u2014 joined by Abira Ashfaq, a lawyer and human rights activist, and Uzair Younis, a political economist based in Washington D.C. \u2014 discussed anti-Afghan sentiment and explained structural, legal and political flaws in the policy.<\/p>\n Rehman explained how the decision to deport Afghan refugees en masse was beyond the caretaker government\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Having immersed himself in local Afghan populations across Pakistan, Rehman saw firsthand the plight of Afghans being deported or living in fear of it, which he details in a recent New York Times piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most Afghans built their livelihoods over several decades in Pakistan, their birth country, but are leaving with almost nothing. The government policy of allowing them to carry just Rs.50,000 as they cross the border leaves them with little to start a life in a country many of them have never been to.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal hotels in Afghanistan aren\u2019t accepting undocumented individuals, forcing many to take shelter from the cold in shanty tents,\u201d Rehman said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ashfaq, the rights activist, said that Pakistan\u2019s immigration policy is fundamentally flawed; Afghan men married to Pakistani women don\u2019t get citizenship, although foreign women who marry Pakistani men acquire citizenship.<\/p>\n The other most glaring issue is that Afghans being detained in Pakistan have no access to lawyers even though they have the right to \u2014 something Ashfaq said she witnessed firsthand when she visited deportation centres in Karachi.<\/p>\n A last-minute success, Ashfaq said, was when she combed through official databases and found that certain detainees had been wrongfully detained and were still set for deportation, till she intervened.<\/p>\n Due to racial profiling by the Karachi police based on appearances and attire, Afghans were indiscriminately being rounded up and thrown in detention centres, Rehman said. Despite having Proof of Registration (POR) cards that legally allow Afghans to live in Pakistan, several have been leaving voluntarily to avoid being harassed and humiliated by the police, they told him.<\/p>\n The sudden policy shift was the outcome of a failed Afghan policy Pakistan has had for decades, Younis said, answering one of the hundred or so students who packed the lecture hall for this event.<\/p>\n \u201cPakistan doesn\u2019t have financial or domestic political support anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cThe caretaker govt chose this policy to scapegoat Afghans during an economic crisis in Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n The government has defended its policy by saying that Afghans are a \u201cburden on the economy\u201d and facilitate smuggling activities across the country.<\/p>\n Younis challenged this notion by explaining that smuggling does not happen in thin air.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are networks involved , many of whom are linked to institutions in the government as well as illicit criminal and militant networks,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there is an illicit economy that has to be talked about here as well.<\/p>\n Since their arrival in Pakistan, Afghans have been villainized and linked to terrorist activities and the recent rise in crime. However, there is no data<\/a> to prove this misconception that many Pakistanis continue to cling to, which, Rehman opines, comes from the media\u2019s stereotyping.<\/p>\n On the contrary, Afghans have contributed immensely to the economy, so by deporting Afghans, we\u2019re shooting ourselves in the foot, Younis said. From opening tandoor<\/em> shops to picking trash to running neighbourhood convenience stores and more, Afghans have enriched the local landscape throughout Pakistan.<\/p>\n Ashfaq delved further into discrimination against Afghans by urging the audience to understand this issue through an imperialist lens.<\/p>\n \u201cThis behaviour is synonymous with the colonizers\u2019 way of ruling by dividing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She went on to explain that Pakistanis\u2019 inherent hatred for Afghans comes from the way we\u2019ve been forced to think about them. Multinational companies stealing land and resources in Sindh, for example, are also \u201coutsiders\u201d, she explained, but because they hold immense power, Pakistanis don\u2019t condemn their presence in Pakistan.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause you don\u2019t see Afghans as part of the political economy, they\u2019re the only ones you punch down on.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashfaq highlighted \u201cinstitutionalised discrimination\u201d Afghans faced when they were barred from enrolling at public schools and government colleges.<\/p>\n \u201cMarginalized people are more vulnerable when they\u2019re not allowed in government schools,\u201d she said, speaking more broadly of Bengalis and other minorities.<\/p>\n Despite paying taxes and contributing to the GDP, Afghans and Bengalis are not being counted in the population census, which Ashfaq calls a form of \u201cracial apartheid\u201d.<\/p>\n When students in attendance asked the panelists for guidance on practical steps on their part, she said: \u201cYou have to learn how to be activists and lawyers, and tackle MNCs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd be radical as hell.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashfaq, who is also visiting faculty at IBA, said that events like these are immensely important \u201cbecause we have to focus on the law and that there is a legal obligation that we have towards Afghans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cHow can someone living in Pakistan for two to four decades sell everything and leave?\u201d asked senior journalist Zia Ur Rehman, echoing a question that many have been wondering since the government announced the November 1 deadline for \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d to leave the country \u2014 a policy that has mainly targeted Afghans living in Pakistan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28004,"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\/241602058e56385.jpg?r=163353","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28003","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=28003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018En masse deportation beyond caretaker govt\u2019s jurisdiction\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Failed Afghan policy for decades\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Be radical as hell\u2019<\/h2>\n