Imran Khan has outlined plans to grant citizenship to an estimated 1.5 million Afghan refugees, many of whom have lived in Pakistan for decades.

The Pakistani prime minister made the surprise announcement during his first visit to Karachi since his election last month.

He indicated that passports would be given not only to children who were born and brought up in the country, but also to their parents.

However, following a backlash, he later appeared to row back on the plans, saying he had raised the issue of refugee citizenship “just to initiate a debate” and that no decision had been made.

BNP Chief Akhtar Mengal said that he was disappointed with Prime Minister decision over Afghan refugees.

Earlier, the six points of Akhter Mengal include resolution of issue of all missing persons and avoidance of any such occurrence in the offing along with implementation of National Action Plan in letter and spirit. The foregoing point would definitely resolve the simmering emotions in Balochistan as hundreds of people, if not thousands, have gone missing since the low scale insurgency that erupted in the province following assassination of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

the repatriation of Aghan refugees to their homeland as long hospitality has done much damage to this society, including introduction of drugs, damaging social fabric of the society, over-burdening the scarce resources, increasing environmental issues and terrorism. The Second point includes preservation of democratic identity of the province and legislation in this regard. It goes without saying that the province shares 43 per cent of the geography but only 6 per cent of the population in the country.

The Government of Pakistan and the people are not responsible for the fact that Afghanistan is backward and unable to feed its population and pushing the people out of the country purely for economic reasons. So is the case of ignored and backward Balochistan.

The Afghans are constant economic burden on Pakistan, a backward country and with limited resources. For this reason alone, the Government of the day in coming under additional pressure from the people of Pakistan seeking the early repatriation of all Afghans, including the illegal immigrants who crossed the international border at will and staying back in Pakistan on permanent basis.

Chief Minister Balochistan’s Balochistan Awami Party, BNP Mengal, National Party and other parties in Balochistan have strongly condemned the Prime Minister’s decision over granting citizenship to Afghan refugees citing the Central Government of PTI muse take in confidence all parties particularly leaderships of Balochistan and KPK hosting Afghan refugees from more than three decades.

According to political analysts, before giving examples of America and European Countries the Prime Minister must compare our economy with world major powers. The western countries have strong laws regarding citizenships of Refugees erstwhile they have been providing all facilities to their own citizens then they grant citizenships to Refugees as per need of their country’s economy.

Keeping in view the ground realities of poverty, international debts, shambling economy and terrorism the Federal Government take such cumbersome decision bring attrition for the country.