Afghan Refugees op/ed by Ambassador Tariq Osman Hyder

[KingQamaR]

It’s always the normal , simple people that suffer and starve when … . Of politics and wars Taliban A-Holes are responsible for their actions that lead their country in such a devastating state this is very sad.

 

[hussain0216]

Don't care

They are horrible horrible people, they deserve no sympathy or mercy from us

Yesterday they again tried to attack a cadet college, and would have killed hundreds of students and teachers


Just seal the border and throw every last namak haram out of the country

 

[Fatman17]

This is the ultimate tragedy of the situation. Pakistan has gone out of its way to help Afghans and specially the Taliban, earning itself the enmity of the entire West/ISAF yet the payback is nothing but blood of innocent Pakistanis. We have destroyed our social fabric for Afghanistan and it has been all for naught.

As I have always maintained, Afghans are good people and they don't deserve this. But the actions of their Taliban leaders, who we unfortunately helped impose on them and who now stay on for reasons that I documented here, have no considerations or care for the suffering of these people. Their goal is the take over of Pakistan and then push their takfiri ideology out to Iran etc. Like ISIS, the Taliban will never take on India or any other external enemies. Their task is to impose their interpretation on the rest of us who they consider "murtad".

What compounds this tragedy is the sheer anger against the Taliban and Afghanistan which is at a level never seen before in Pakistan. I think it is the reverse of what we used to hear for years about Afghans hating Pakistan. People in Pakistan are asking "what have we done to Afghanistan to see this mass blood letting at their hands?"

On top of this, the clueless in KP and their OIC resolution like jirgas yield nothing. See this: https://www.dawn.com/news/1954653

How tone-deaf can they be? Some of the demands of the jirga are as follows:

- Hold talks with Afghanistan. That we have done this innumerable times is lost on them and each time the outcome has been worse than the time before. Not saying talks should be abandoned but this has been a one-way street.
- Peace in Pakistan cannot happen unless there is peace in Afghanistan. Last I checked, there has been peace in Afghanistan. No bombings, no suicide attacks, no attacks on military camps, on schools, on courts etc. etc. All of the violence is happening in Pakistan as such there must be some special kind of hashish being smoked at the jirga and in the KP government.
- Open all trade routes to Afghanistan. What safety and security does Pakistan get from such a move? Jirga has no clue.
- One former CM quipped rhetorically, what good did the past Jirgas result in? Answer: Crickets chirping.

The reality is that KP has no clue how to manage this conflict that is being waged on Pakistan from outside of Pakistan. I wish there was better alignment between the centre and the province and the NAP gets implemented fully.

How can you have alignment when all the leaders of the provincial ruling party are incarcerated. Coffee ️ anyone

 

[diaspora]

How can you have alignment when all the leaders of the provincial ruling party are incarcerated. Coffee ️ anyone

This - also the entire focus of the KP government is to somehow get Imran Khan freed. There's little talk of development or security beyond the regular lip-service.

It doesn't help that IK has forbidden any talks between his party and the centre or the establishment. I am hoping that that is not true in practice, and that there is coordination between the KP govt and the federal govt but I'll be honest with you things look bleak.

Also this isn't the first time Khan's pulled something like this - meaning complete disregard for the federal government.

When Musharraf took over in the early 2000s and incarcerated Nawaz, Khan was shaking Mushy's hands and thanking him for it. Heck he was saying the same in 2016 as well, calling for a military coup. The very essence of Khan's politics is populism, disruption and self-aggrandizement - whatever the cost, even if the cost is national cohesion and stability.

"Khan nahin tau kuch nahin". He and PTI both mean it.

 

[Blain2]

How can you have alignment when all the leaders of the provincial ruling party are incarcerated. Coffee ️ anyone

Fair point. However, there are ruling party proxies operating on the ground. The CM is IK's hand-picked guy. He and the Governor need to start talking to the center. Why is that not happening?

 

[Distant_Observer]

Again, where how did your come to 2 million CNICs starting number especially for 1990s?

It's based on the assumption they are under reporting because they still don't know the full extent. I defenitely think the figure is much much higher. Very alarming.

 

[Samurai]

This is the ultimate tragedy of the situation. Pakistan has gone out of its way to help Afghans and specially the Taliban, earning itself the enmity of the entire West/ISAF yet the payback is nothing but blood of innocent Pakistanis. We have destroyed our social fabric for Afghanistan and it has been all for naught.

As I have always maintained, Afghans are good people and they don't deserve this. But the actions of their Taliban leaders, who we unfortunately helped impose on them and who now stay on for reasons that I documented here, have no considerations or care for the suffering of these people. Their goal is the take over of Pakistan and then push their takfiri ideology out to Iran etc. Like ISIS, the Taliban will never take on India or any other external enemies. Their task is to impose their interpretation on the rest of us who they consider "murtad".

What compounds this tragedy is the sheer anger against the Taliban and Afghanistan which is at a level never seen before in Pakistan. I think it is the reverse of what we used to hear for years about Afghans hating Pakistan. People in Pakistan are asking "what have we done to Afghanistan to see this mass blood letting at their hands?"

On top of this, the clueless in KP and their OIC resolution like jirgas yield nothing. See this: https://www.dawn.com/news/1954653

How tone-deaf can they be? Some of the demands of the jirga are as follows:

- Hold talks with Afghanistan. That we have done this innumerable times is lost on them and each time the outcome has been worse than the time before. Not saying talks should be abandoned but this has been a one-way street.
- Peace in Pakistan cannot happen unless there is peace in Afghanistan. Last I checked, there has been peace in Afghanistan. No bombings, no suicide attacks, no attacks on military camps, on schools, on courts etc. etc. All of the violence is happening in Pakistan as such there must be some special kind of hashish being smoked at the jirga and in the KP government.
- Open all trade routes to Afghanistan. What safety and security does Pakistan get from such a move? Jirga has no clue.
- One former CM quipped rhetorically, what good did the past Jirgas result in? Answer: Crickets chirping.

The reality is that KP has no clue how to manage this conflict that is being waged on Pakistan from outside of Pakistan. I wish there was better alignment between the centre and the province and the NAP gets implemented fully.

"As I have always maintained, Afghans are good people"

Well, an avg. Afghan doesn't like Pakistani and wants Pakistan to suffer for their own self-inflicted suffering and not to mention about the nationalist Afghans. If given an opportunity to shoot an Indian or Pakistani, an Afghan will always shoot a Pakistani. So I disagree with your point.

 

[Asfandyar Bhittani]

It's based on the assumption they are under reporting because they still don't know the full extent. I defenitely think the figure is much much higher. Very alarming.

Not really. The undocumented can be under reported, the margin in documented is not big. ACC/POR and CNIC. All are made by Pakistan. The first two, well, are irrelevant now. Fake CNICs are one search away from being detected, assuming the govt is looking. Family trees, biometrics, the lot. Just multiplying it ten fold for the sake of it, is disinformation. Which blinds us to the actual scale and gives pro illegals the ammunition that "deporting all is not possible". Playing right into their hands.

 

[Asfandyar Bhittani]

Update as of November 1, 2025.

1,667,713 (1.67 million) Afghan illegal settlers have been repatriated back to Afghanistan since illegal foreigners repatriation plan began in 2023 under Kakar caretaker government.

The IFRP was on hold during 2024 and early 2025. But since April, more settlers have been repatriated in 2025 than 2023 and 2024 put together, around 861,722. Which comes around ~4100 per day since April 1.

There are still anywhere between 1.8 to 2.4 million pre 2023 afghans occupying Pakistani territories. At the 2025 rate of deportations, it will take around 15 to 20 months to get rid of them all assuming Pakistan doesn't pull another Islami baradar mulk like in 2024.

The deportation rate this week has been around ~14k per day since there was a backlog caused by border war. This will climb back down by the end of the month.

Undocumented make up 75% of the repatriations.
View attachment 158190

Update as of November 8, 2025.

917,490 have been deported in 2025.

1,723,481 (1.72 million) Afghan illegal settlers have been repatriated back to Afghanistan since illegal foreigners repatriation plan began in 2023 under Kakar caretaker government.


There are still give or take 2 million pre 2023 afghan settlers in Pakistan.

Illegal foreigners repatriation program, which has been active only 10 months since it began in 2023 with a complete pause in ,2024 until April 2025, has successfully repatriated 43-45% of pre program afghan population. By end of of December 2025 that figure might cross 50%, in 12 months of operation. 50% in one year basically.

Pakistan could be near end of the program by now had it not paused in 2024.

 

[hussain0216]

Update as of November 8, 2025.

917,490 have been deported in 2025.

1,723,481 (1.72 million) Afghan illegal settlers have been repatriated back to Afghanistan since illegal foreigners repatriation plan began in 2023 under Kakar caretaker government.


There are still give or take 2 million pre 2023 afghan settlers in Pakistan.

Illegal foreigners repatriation program, which has been active only 10 months since it began in 2023 with a complete pause in ,2024 until April 2025, has successfully repatriated 43-45% of pre program afghan population. By end of of December 2025 that figure might cross 50%, in 12 months of operation. 50% in one year basically.

Pakistan could be near end of the program by now had it not paused in 2024.View attachment 159460

There are give or take 20 million Afghan settlers

It not just a few refugees

We are talking about people who turned up in Pakistan for decades, undocumented people who married locals and who got ID cards illegally, who set up shop etc etc

We now need to comb through the population, ask everyone to verify their identity and claim to Pakistani citizenship

Marrying a local or being born in Pakistan shouldn't be the basis to allow disloyal people become citizens, the biggest group Afghan terrorists use to hide is the above group

 

[Asfandyar Bhittani]

There are give or take 20 million Afghan settlers

It not just a few refugees

We are talking about people who turned up in Pakistan for decades, undocumented people who married locals and who got ID cards illegally, who set up shop etc etc

We now need to comb through the population, ask everyone to verify their identity and claim to Pakistani citizenship

Marrying a local or being born in Pakistan shouldn't be the basis to allow disloyal people become citizens, the biggest group Afghan terrorists use to hide is the above group

Add another zero while you are at it. Kis ne puchna ha.

 

[Blain2]

"As I have always maintained, Afghans are good people"

Well, an avg. Afghan doesn't like Pakistani and wants Pakistan to suffer for their own self-inflicted suffering and not to mention about the nationalist Afghans. If given an opportunity to shoot an Indian or Pakistani, an Afghan will always shoot a Pakistani. So I disagree with your point.

That is because of the politics. You take the politics out and Afghans with Pakistanis are no different than any other Muslim demographic. Not everything can/should be seen through the lens of nation-state politics.

 

[Distant_Observer]

There are give or take 20 million Afghan settlers

It not just a few refugees

We are talking about people who turned up in Pakistan for decades, undocumented people who married locals and who got ID cards illegally, who set up shop etc etc

We now need to comb through the population, ask everyone to verify their identity and claim to Pakistani citizenship

Marrying a local or being born in Pakistan shouldn't be the basis to allow disloyal people become citizens, the biggest group Afghan terrorists use to hide is the above group

They should cancel everyone's passport home and abroad and force everyone to apply again.

 

[hydrabadi_arab]

 

[hussain0216]

They should cancel everyone's passport home and abroad and force everyone to apply again.

Absolutely, or at least I.D cards, then make it impossible to do anything In Pakistan without a valid I.D card

Can't get a job
Can't go to school
Can't open a bank account
Can't buy or register a car
Own a home

Literally anything,

Then go through the process of revalidation of ALL I.D cards to weed out all non-citizens


This is now a national security issue, we all saw what happened in Iran during the war with Israel and we cannot afford to be merciful or easy