QUETTA: Security experts in Pakistan were found praising the Iranian Government in the recent past in handling millions of Afghan refugees since the civil war began in that country in early 1974 saving the country from all the complications now Pakistan is unfortunately facing. Iran was an independent country and was not subservient to the interests of US and its allies and thus took an independent decision and kept the Afghan refugees and militants separate from the Iranian population. They were not allowed to mix up for security reasons.

On the contrary, Pakistan Government, under the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq, decided otherwise and allowed the Afghan refugees, including the Afghan Mujahideen/Taliban and militants, to hide their identity by mixing up with the local population in all parts of Pakistan, excluding some refugee camps.

It is failure of the Government for the past many decades to stop the inflow of economic migrants and militants from Afghanistan to Pakistan as the international borders were kept wide open with no check only to appease the rulers in Kabul and their supporters in Pakistan.

Some observers claimed that certain elements in the Pakistani establishment still think that Afghanistan will have to become a client of Pakistan by keeping open door policy with Afghanistan. At least, policies of the Government had proved this point in the past.

Lately, the security establishment had thought to enforce border management by closing the borders for free movement of people between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the soft border policy proved to be a complete disaster for Pakistan and its people resulting in more acts of terrorism in which Afghans were found involved in larger number.

After a shift in the Afghan national policy or foreign policy from Pakistan to India, Islamabad also started thinking some tough measures for tight border control ending the free movement of people between the two countries, mainly on two major border or immigration posts of Torkham in KPK and Chaman in Balochistan. Passport was made compulsory for crossing the international frontier.

The massive acts of terrorism during the past one decade had proved beyond doubt that the Afghan militants and illegal immigrants were found involved in those crimes against the humanity leaving tens of thousands of people and security personnel killed and many more maimed.

Pakistan and its people had already paid a very heavy price for its wrong security policy allowing the militants and illegal immigrants to mix up with the population and use the national resources as a matter of right like Pakistanis. How can the rulers or decision-makers justify those blunders or inhuman crime committed against the people of Pakistan and the State?

India is trying to form a grand coalition against Pakistan with the support of the world power and dragging Afghanistan into this gang up. The recent developments on the regional scene had indicated that Afghanistan is voluntarily joining the anti-Pakistan coalition and all attempts to appease Afghanistan to leave the Indian-led grouping will not succeed.

Thus the Government should prepare a contingency plan to deal with an emergency situation if Afghanistan decides to keep Pakistan border hot and insecure at the behest of India or other powers of the world.

For this, we have been suggesting that all the Afghan refugees registered with the United Nations and the illegal immigrants should be kept in barbed wire camps for security reasons.

The Government should prefer to keep all the Afghans on the Afghan soil and the world community should finance the operation cost feeding the refugees on the Afghan soil. They should remain in the camps as long as they want or unwilling to go back to their homes with usual honour and dignity.

The Kenyan Government had shifted all the refugee camps of the Somalis from Kenya to Somalia following their involvement in acts of terrorism and attacking the Kenyan people off and on. Thus we can use the Kenyan model asking the world community to finance the project as the Afghans are a serious burden on Pakistan.

The situation had provided a good chance for the Government to take all Afghans, both refugees and illegal immigrants inside Afghanistan and close to Pakistan border where they should kept in camps so that the refugee issue in Pakistan is resolved.

The political parties, mainly the Pakhtun dominated parties, should extend unqualified support to the plan to settle all Afghans on the soil of Afghanistan with honour and dignity ending all the bitterness of the past.

The Government of Pakistan should take all the illegal immigrants out from the population centres and kept in camp creating job opportunities for the local people in KPK and Balochistan and even in Sindh where millions are residing in Karachi alone.

The demand of the Baloch political parties is legitimate that all Afghans, particularly the illegal immigrants, should be repatriated to Afghanistan and later on the Government should hold census in a better political climate. There is unanimity among the Baloch people and political parties that they are oppose to holding any census in presence of illegal immigrants.

It is also a valid point that the Baloch conflict is going on for the past one decade or more that millions of people have been dislodged from their home as a result of the bloody conflict. The Government should rehabilitate all Internally Displaced Persons without any discrimination and later on hold census regularly and without any disruption.

The climate for holding census is not conducive at the moment and there is no urgency in Balochistan and let the Government hold census in other parts of Pakistan sparing Balochistan for some time.