ISLAMABAD, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Pakistani Senate was informed on Tuesday that some three million Afghan refuges, still living in the country, will be repatriated by 2012, official sources said.
Pakistani Minister for Sates and Frontier Regions Najmuddin Khan told the upper house of the parliament that there are 1.7 million registered and more than one million unregistered Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan.
Responding during the question hour session, he said that the Afghan refugees would completely be repatriated with honour to their own country by 2012.
He said that a tripartite commission set up under the Tripartite Agreement between governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is working for return and reintegration of Afghan refugees.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the House that Afghan refugees residing in different parts of the country especially in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa are involved in acts of terrorism and crimes.
"I have taken up the issue with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and asked him to take measures for the return and reintegration of Afghan refugees and strengthen your vote bank but he didn't reply positively," the minister added.
Millions of Afghan refugees had arrived in Pakistan after the former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. They had been living in camps and cities in rented houses and many of them have returned after the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001.
Pakistan has issued a special card known as Proof of Registration Card which allow them to stay in Pakistan.
