KP government spokesperson: Afghans who are lawfully residing in Pakistan shouldn't face discrimination or be forced to leave.

 Afghan nationals who are lawfully residing in Pakistan should not be "harassed or expelled," according to KP government spokesman Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif. He cautioned that taking such action could worsen ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In November of last year, the government began the first wave of "undocumented aliens" to be returned home.

The amount of projected 1.7 million illegal Afghans who have fled to their nation since November 2023 has not been officially disclosed, but it is likely far lower than the currently greatly exaggerated figure.

However, credible sources estimate that roughly 500,000 undocumented Afghans returned to their country through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan during the first round.

According to records, local authorities and police have been instructed to map and gather information about the whereabouts of almost one million "documented" Afghans around the nation as part of the second phase of the repatriation effort, which aims to return them to their native country.

The additional chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Abid Majeed, told Dawn in March that "we have already started the mapping process" and that the procedure had an April 30 deadline.

According to the PTI leader, no action is being taken against lawful Afghan residents at this time, and all unlawful Afghan migrants in KP have already been returned.

He said, "We were tasked with identifying illegal Afghans in KP during the first phase, and they were deported." "Every Afghan in KP without any documentation has left and gone back home."

Barrister Saif said that in compliance with Pakistani legislation and international resolutions from organisations such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the only Afghans remaining in the province were individuals who held Afghan Citizen Cards.

All the federal government has requested us to do is monitor the number of legitimate Afghans residing in KP. 359,000 people reside in the province, according to our mapping," he stated, noting that no orders to initiate legal action against any individuals have been given.

"We will speak with the authorities if we receive instructions to remove them (legal Afghans)." "We cannot harass or target Afghans who are legally residing here; deporting illegal Afghans was a justified decision," he stated.

Any action taken against lawfully registered Afghans, the barrister cautioned, would "foment hatred, misunderstanding and mistrust between us and Afghanistan."

He went on, "The federal government should handle this situation carefully."