Fearing persecution In Taliban’s Afghanistan, Afghan singers residing in Pakistan have filed a plea against the government’s deportation plan in Peshawar High Court. The three petitioners are Hashmatullah Omed, Rafi Hanif, and Hameed Shahdai, accompanied by a large number of Afghan singers and musicians who are claiming that they have lived in Pakistan for years as refugees.
A group of Afghan artists residing in Pakistan lodged an appeal in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against their forced repatriation. Musicians are afraid of their uncertain future in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. #Afghanrefugees #afghan #peshawar #taliban pic.twitter.com/RtJ1syMx68
— Lok Sujag (@lok_sujag) November 2, 2023
The bench at the PHC consists of Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Syed Arshad Ali. It directed the deputy attorney general Hazrat Said to file a reply on behalf of the federal government to the petition filed by the singers.
The petitioners’ counsel, Mumtaz Ahmad, informed the court that almost four identical petitions had been filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the forced repatriation of Afghans. He also suggested that it would be appropriate for the high court to wait for the outcome of those petitions in the top court and to decide the instant plea in light of that decision. The traditionally conservative Taliban government has inadvertently forced these artists to take refuge in Pakistan with their families like many others. They are registered by the UN refugee agency, given a token number, and their cases are under process. They requested the court to issue directives to the government to allow them to live unbothered with their refugee status in Pakistan.
The same question was asked to Sarfraz Bugti, interim Interior Minister of Pakistan, to which he responded that such individuals need to opt for a proper procedure of asylum.
The government, however, is in no mood to retract their decision. In a recent statement made by an official in an interview with the Tribune, it was reiterated that the aim is to repatriate all the illegal Afghans- almost 1.7 million in a year. Certain people will be allowed to stay in Pakistan before their settlement in USA, UK, and Canada only on the request made by these countries who have promised asylum to these Afghans. They have been informed by Pakistan to speed up the process.
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