PESHAWAR: The federal government has hinted at devising a new policy for unregistered Afghan nationals residing across the country as the police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and political administrations in tribal agencies are gearing up for launching a drive against undocumented Afghans.

Official sources said that the ministry of state and frontier regions (Safron) had informed home secretaries and commissioner of the Afghan refugees of the four provinces through a letter last week that policy regarding unregistered Afghans was being devised at the earliest.

The new policy would be conveyed to the provinces for implementation very soon, the letter said. Officials said that approximately over two million Afghan nationals had been residing in Pakistan without valid documents.

However the ministry said that Afghan refugees holding proof of registration (PoR) cards could stay in the country by the end of December 2015. Safron asked home departments to direct police and other authorities concerned not to harass Afghans carrying valid POR cards.

It said that registered Afghans holding PoR cards or any unregistered Afghans involved in illegal activities, crimes or terrorism had to be strictly dealt with under the prevailing laws of the land and anyone should be deported wherever required.

Home departments had also been directed that registered Afghan refugees in respective provinces should be very clearly informed that they had to repatriate to their country by December 31.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is facilitating voluntary repatriation of 1.6 million registered Afghans from Pakistan.

Repatriation process is going on very slowly and only 16,000 Afghans were repatriated last year.

Meanwhile, police have expedited campaign against unregistered Afghans in Peshawar and other parts of KP. Unregistered Afghan nationals traveling or staying in the province are being deported to their country under 14 Foreigners Act after fulfilling legal requirements.

An official at the Torkham border check post told Dawn that over 2,000 illegal Afghans had been deported since terrorist attack on Army Public School on December 16 last year. The provincial government had directed police to arrest illegal Afghans and deported themimmediately.

On the directives of civil secretariat Fata political authorities in Khyber and South Waziristan agencies have directed tribal people to expel Afghan nationals from their properties.

South Waziristan Political Agent Islam Zaib gave three days deadline to a tribal jirga in Wana on Saturday to expel Afghans from their houses otherwise action would be taken. A jirga of Ahmadzai Wazir tribe has been convened in Wana on Monday to discuss the issue.Bureau