In an effort to prevent the forcible removal of Afghan people from Pakistan, a plea has been filed with the Supreme Court in ISLAMABAD.
On Monday, advocate Umar Gilani, who is representing former senator Farhatullah Babar and other petitioners, asked the Supreme Court registrar’s office to assign a case number and set a hearing date.
Although the motion to dismiss was made four days ago, it has not yet been recorded. According to Monday’s petition, thousands of people are in danger of being evicted and are experiencing hardship on a daily basis.
To “protect the fundamental rights of millions of people” in Pakistan under Article 4, the petitioners have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case.
The federal government has been cracking down on “undocumented” Afghan nationals, who are effectively asylum seekers awaiting legal procedures. Under the guise of tackling the problem of “illegal migrants,” the state has initiated a campaign to forcibly expel about 1.3 million such people from the country as of November 1, 2023.
“effectively amounts to a reversal of a 45-year-old Pakistani state policy of hospitality and leniency towards refugees, asylum-seekers, and other migrants from the Afghan borders,” the petitioners’ counsel argues of the “impugned directive” being undertaken by the “apex committee” of the caretaker cabinet.
It adds that because “being a major policy decision, it [the move to evict and deport] exceeds the powers of the caretaker cabinet as provided under Section 230 of the Elections Act, 2017” .
“Besides, it is causing massive violations of fundamental rights and rulings of Superior Courts including Aamir Aman vs. Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2020 Sindh 533), Rahil Azizi versus The State (W.P. No. 1666/2023) and Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor versus Government of Pakistan (PLD 2021 Islamabad 305,” says the report.
Advocate Gilani requested that the registrar’s office “take urgent notice of the matter and take all steps necessary for upholding the laws and the Constitution and providing inexpensive and expeditions justice.”
The most recent United Nations estimates place the number of refugees in Pakistan at around 1.3 million, with an additional 880,000 having legal permission to remain in the country.
In light of increased crime and inadequate immigration regulation, police and politicians have justified a recent roundup by saying it solely targets individuals without legal status.
Official police numbers show that since the beginning of September, at least 700 Afghans have been arrested in Karachi alone, which is 10 times more than in August.
Afghans claim that the arrests have been targeting innocent people.
Prolonged economic hardship is weighing on Pakistani homes, and tensions are increasing between Islamabad and Kabul’s new Taliban leadership, so they accuse police of extorting money and neglecting legal documentation.
