‘concerned citizens’ filed petition against Afghans’ deportation

The Human rights activists together with politicians have moved to the Supreme Court of Pakistan against mass deportation of Afghan nationals living illegally in Pakistan.

The (13) personalities described themselves as concerned citizens want SC to take suo motu notice of the caretaker government’s policy under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

The petitioners included Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Farhatullah Babar, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, National Democratic Movement’s (NDM) Mohsin Dawar, jibran nasir, iman zainab mazari, amina masood janjua and others questioning the caretaker government’s right to excercise the deportation drive.

The plea stated that this decision, attributed to the apex committee of the caretaker government, is causing a massive violation of fundamental rights of around 4.4 million persons of Afghan origin who are for the time being in Pakistan.

The petition demaded that the state to be barred from detaining, forcefully deporting, or otherwise harassing anyone who was born in Pakistan and has a claim to birth-right citizenship in accordance with Section 4 of the Citizenship Act, 1951.

The “concerned citizens” surprisingly questions the strategic importance of the decision also suspects that it falls completely beyond the limited constitutional mandate of the caretaker government.

It is estimated that more than 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates 1.7 million are undocumented and therefore are subjected to leave Pakistan.The drive have made around 140,000 such immigrants to have voluntarily left so far, some of whom have lived in Pakistan for decades.