President Pervez Musharraf on Monday
said in accordance with Pakistan’s support for the
Bonn Process, a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan
was of great importance to its neighbours, particularly
Islamabad.
Talking to United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, the president
said the political and electoral process, which the Bonn
Process had set in motion, should reflect the ethnic balance.
He said participation in
the electoral process of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan
should be assisted. "While this was the primary responsibility
of Unama (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan),
it was Pakistan’s expectation that the UNHCR, with
its experience, staff, and data, would assist in this
regard, including facilitating the registration of the
Afghan refugees," the president said.
Lubbers stated that the electoral
participation of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan was not
the primary mandate of the UNHCR, but he acknowledged
that the involvement of the UNHCR would be of value. Lubbers
outlined various options in the context of voluntary repatriation
of Afghan refugees who had come to Pakistan in the past
two and a half years as a result of the then disturbed
conditions. The president observed that the sequencing
should be such that first these refugees were repatriated,
and after that the camps should be closed.
Regarding the majority of
Afghan refugees, the high commissioner said that while
a considerable number had returned to Afghanistan in the
past two years, the UNHCR expected another 400,000 to
500,000 to be repatriated this year. The president stated
that as conditions in Afghanistan improved, Pakistan looked
forward to the return of the refugees so that they could
play their rightful role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction
and future.
Appreciating UNHCR’s
assistance and role for the past two and a half decades,
the president urged Lubbers to draw up a roadmap of UNHCR’s
future role after the conclusion of the Tripartite Agreement
between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR in 2006. Lubbers
assured the president the UNHCR would continue to play
a supportive role in repatriating Afghan refugees when
this phase concluded.
