Necessitating the determination of the legal status of Afghans in Pakistan: an analysis

Humna Sohail; Ambreen Abbasi; Amjid Ali Khan

doi:10.47264/idea.lassij/6.1.9

Authors

Humna Sohail Department of Law, Faculty of Shariah and Law, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4554-5779
Ambreen Abbasi Department of Law, Faculty of Shariah and Law, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4691-6404
Amjid Ali Khan Department of Arts, Design and Architecture, School of Social Sciences, The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3351-867X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/6.1.9

Keywords:

Afghan refugees, refugees in Pakistan, impact of refugees, migration, status determination, status of refugees, vulnerabilities of refugees, refugee policy

Abstract

Afghan soil due to its strategic and geopolitical significance has witnessed numerous political turmoils creating an effective governance vacuum and transnational interferences costing the fate of the Afghan population. Massive Afghan movements were directed to Pakistan and Iran with the hope of evading the bitterness of traumatized living conditions in the native state. Only the situation of Afghans that Pakistan is housing is within the scope of the present study. This study aims to highlight the significance attached to the status determination of said community that has attracted little attention. Without an explicit and clear policy toward Afghans in Pakistan, uncertainty looms over their potential fate. Until and unless a certain status is accorded to them and they are brought into a certain legal net, they will continue to be employed as tools by the political actors. With underpinning the need to adopt a clear policy vis-à-vis the status of said Afghans the study finds that it will equally benefit Pakistan. The study opens room for future doctrinal legal research as to what are the potential legal classes these Afghans may belong to.

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