ISLAMABAD — Pakistan deported a total of 1,155,221 Afghan nationals during 2025, senior officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Chief Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees informed a Senate standing committee.
The repatriated individuals included 163,429 Proof of Registration (PoR) card holders, 74,943 Afghan Citizen Card holders, 509,671 undocumented migrants, and 407,178 voluntary returnees.
The data was presented to the Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) during a meeting held at the Parliament Lodges on Monday.
The committee was also told that 54 Afghan refugee camps are currently operating across the country — 43 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10 in Balochistan and one in Punjab.
Members sought detailed information on Afghan inflows, current population figures and settlement locations. The committee directed the relevant ministries to provide year-wise and district-wise data covering the period from 2005 to 2025.
Officials further informed the committee that the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO) on July 31, 2025, declaring Afghan refugees holding PoR cards illegal and ordering their immediate deportation.
Following a meeting on August 4, 2025, a one-month grace period for voluntary return was granted until September 1, 2025, after which forced deportations began. Provincial governments were assigned the lead role in implementing deportations in coordination with relevant stakeholders, including the Commissionerates for Afghan Refugees.
To facilitate dignified returns, the Chief Commissionerate, with support from provincial Afghan Commissionerates, Nadra and UNHCR, expanded the capacity of existing Voluntary Repatriation Centers. Eleven Nadra PoR card modification centres were also converted into repatriation facilities.
At these centres, Afghan nationals were deregistered from Nadra’s Afghan National Registration (ANR) database and provided transportation to border crossings along with their families.
The meeting, chaired by Senator Asad Qasim, was attended by Senators Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto, Faisal Saleem Rehman, Nasir Mehmood and Atta-ul-Haq. The committee also reviewed governance, humanitarian, environmental and security issues related to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and the repatriation process.
Additional Chief Secretary Gilgit-Baltistan Mushtaq Ahmed briefed members on post-flood measures, noting that real-time monitoring systems had been installed in deputy commissioner offices and that 115 early warning systems were now operational across the region.
The committee also discussed the situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, including recent unrest linked to demands by the Awami Action Committee, which members said could pose challenges to national unity.
However, deliberations on the issue were deferred due to the continued absence of the Chief Secretary of Azad Kashmir, who failed to attend the meeting for the second consecutive time. The committee directed that he ensure participation at the next session.
