WHEN Russia invaded Afghanistan in 1979, millions of Afghans streamed into Pakistan to escape the war. The 3.5 million who ultimately entered Pakistan consisted of different classes of society.

The majority were from rural areas and were mostly illiterate but skilled in agriculture, transport etc. They went into their relevant fields dislodging the locals by being more productive and demanding lower wages.

Their labour turned barren and neglectedlandintolush Helds producing vegetables and crops of sugarcane, wheat, corn, tobacco and cotton to mention a few.

Other Afghans became labourers or started petty businesses selling whatever they could think of.

Surprisingly not a single Afghan was seen beggingon the streets;instead they would prefer to collect garbage and sift it for recyclable items to sell to the scrap dealer.

The educated lot from Afghnaistan`s urban areas used Pakistan as a transit campto shift mostly to the West seeking political asylum with their cash and valuables to startbusinesses there.

A big number opted to stay, some in camps while others obtained computerised national identity cards and started businesses and purchasedland.Stillothers went to the Gulf and other foreign lands to seek their fortune, supporting their families back `home` in Pakistan.

After the war was over, the majority of the Afghans kept two homes, one each in Afghanistan and Pakistan, maintaining extended families in both countries and travelling frequently between them.

Afghan refugees enjoyed more than equal rights but they also introduced evils like illegal arms and ammunition, heroin, and othercontraband drugs.

The Afghans are no longer refugees but enjoy the status of being citizens of two countries without any obligation to Pakistan.They take everythingforgranted as if it is their right. Therefore let us say goodbye to our guests.

Afghanistan always sides with our foes losing no opportunity to spite Pakistan forgetting all this land did for the millions of Afghans who had nowhere to turn in the darks days of the 1980s.

Dr Munawar Aziz Abbottabad