HARIPUR: Pakistan has decided to shut down 16 Afghan refugee camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Punjab as the repatriation ofrefugees continues.

Haji Abdul Samad, who is representative of a main camp in Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said local officials have told him to vacate the camp in accordance with the government`s policy. He, however, said therehasbeennoraid,arrestorpressure on refugees to leave the Panian camp, which houses about 13,000 families and over 90,000 refugees.

The Haripur district administration is all set to take over the land, moveable and immoveable assets and facilities of the Afghan camps from next week, official sources told Dawn on Saturday.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Humaira Mehmood has called a meeting of all the stakeholders on Sept 29 to chalk out a plan to execute the federal government`s order.

Sources said the officials of all the referred departments were asked to bring a complete record of assets, land and facilities of all three camps of Haripur for finalisation and execution of formally taking over thecamps`land and assets.

Haripur Deputy Commissioner Waseen Ahmed confirmed to Dawn that the district administration was going to formally take over the land of three camps, their moveable and immoveable property and assets. He said the Panian Afghan camp was spread over 4,447 kanals, Padhana camp was spread over 740 kanals and Baso Maira camp was set up over 437 kanals.

He said that since 98pc of the land was the property of Wapda, which was acquired for Tarbela dam project in late 60s, the Tarbela dam authorities have been asked to obtain satellite imagery of their land with the help of Suparco so that it could be protected against illegaloccupation or encroachment after the Afghan refugees leave the place.

About other facilities, the DC said that three camps have a total of 26 power transformers, 20 schools, 13 tube wells, 35 pressure pumps, 550 solar panels, six BHUs.

About the repatriation and a cut off date for vacation of camps` land, the DC said that three camps had a total of POR and ACC population of 63,422 individuals while 2,861 have so far repatriated voluntarily. `But they are now preparing to leave for their homeland now which is evident from the statistics of the last two days when 500 plus individuals left Haripur,` he said.

According to notifications issued by the Ministry of States andFrontier Regions (Safron), copies of which are available with Dawn.com, the denotified camps are located in Haripur, Chitral and Upper Dir in KP, Chaghai, Loralai, Killa Saifullah, Pishin and Quetta in Balochistan, and Mianwali in Punjab.

However, when asked about the opinion on denotifying camps where thousands of refugees are staying, the Afghan Chief Commission did not respond to a request for comment.

The notifications stated all lands within the denotified areas would be handed over to the provincial governments and deputy commissioners of the districts concerned. They also read that all non-movable assets within the notified area would also be handed over to the provinces and deputy commissioners.

Most of the camps had been set up in early 1980s when refugees started coming to Pakistan after the invasion of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The formal repatriation and deportation of over 1.3 million Afghan refugees holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards began on Sept 1, though Pakistan had started repatriation of Afghan refugees some two years ago over security concerns and amid tension with the Taliban government. The decision followed the interior ministry`s announcement on July 31 that POR cardholders the last category of Afghans legally residing in Pakistan without visas became unlawful residents after their cards expired on June 30.