Pak Interior Ministry directed to decide within six months citizenship of Afghan refugees' children

Peshawar, Sep 5 (PTI) Peshawar High Court on Friday directed the Federal Ministry of Interior to take a decision regarding the citizenship cases of children born to Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The court, while hearing a petition regarding the citizenship status of the children and their long-residing parents, in a written verdict ordered the Interior Ministry to dispose of the applications with clear directives and reach a decision within six months in accordance with the legal provisions.

The decision comes days after Afghan citizens living in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were ordered to leave the country without delay as their Proof of Registration cards expired on June 30.

The counsel for the petitioners argued that their clients are Afghan refugees, who were married in Pakistan and whose children were born and raised in the country.

The children are also pursuing their education in Pakistan, and therefore, they should be granted naturalisation certificates, the petitioners said.

Justice Waqar Ahmad recalled the high court's detailed 2024 judgment regarding Form B and naturalisation certificates, which stated that individuals born in Pakistan and residing for an extended period are entitled to certificates under the Naturalisation Act.

Section 4 of the Pakistan Citizenship Act states that a person born in Pakistan on or after August 14, 1973 is considered a Pakistani citizen by birth, with the exception that if the parents are citizens of a country at war with Pakistan, the child does not automatically acquire Pakistani citizenship.

Earlier, on August 1, the Home Department of the provincial government issued a notification urging all Afghan citizens residing in the province holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to return to Afghanistan, in compliance with guidelines from the Federal Ministry of Interior.

It suggested no further extension in their stay will be granted.

Pakistan has witnessed a series of terror attacks in recent years and has openly said it suspects the involvement of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a splinter group of Afghan Taliban.

This has prompted the government to launch the drive against Afghans residing in the country.

More than a million Afghans have left Pakistan since November 2023, when the drive to repatriate them was launched.

The campaign targeted the more than 8,00,000 Afghans with temporary residence permits, some of whom were born in Pakistan, or have lived here for decades.

In the 1980s, millions of Afghans fled to neighbouring Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. The numbers witnessed a spike after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

An estimated 1.7 million Afghans, including almost 1.4 million Afghans registered as refugees, had been living in Pakistan when authorities announced its nationwide crackdown, saying that anyone without proper documents had to leave the country by October 31, 2023 or else get arrested.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west and clubbed with hilly terrain, has seen large scale Afghan migrants. PTI AYZ SKS NPK NPK