KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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I think its a great decision to straighten out things. These Clerics always do and can play a great role in spreading peace OR otherwise. I remember many years back I myself heard a khutba in khi where all Imam was doing was bashing Amreeekaa and giving badduaen. Also why do we need any illegal imam either way?

Govt redoubles efforts to remove Afghan prayer leaders from K-P – The Express Tribune

Govt redoubles efforts to remove Afghan prayer leaders from K-PBy Ehtesham Bashir
Published: February 27, 2015

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According to official data, there are 185 Afghan prayer leaders in Peshawar, 49 in Charsada, 46 in Mardan and 13 in Swabi. PHOTO: INP

****PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has compiled a list of at least 366 Afghan nationals who occupy offices of Imams at Mosques and seminaries throughout the province, and has asked those who do not have any documentary proof validating their stay in Pakistan to leave.
Prayers leaders who lack Proof of Registration (POR) and other documents validating their stay in Pakistan have been directed to go back to Afghanistan or else face action. Though a large number of Afghan students enrolled in seminaries in the province have already left for Afghanistan, scores of prayer leaders still occupy offices in mosques and seminaries.
Read: Four Afghan diplomats arrested as crackdown against refugees continues
According to official data, there are 185 Afghan prayer leaders in Peshawar, followed by Charsada with 49, Mardan with 46 and Swabi with 13.
The official data reveal that 20 of these Afghan Ulema have acquired Pakistani National Identity cards. An official confirmed their Afghan origin and suggested that formal action against them may be taken for using fraudulent practices to get National Identity Cards.

Security agencies have confirmed that 47 of the 366 Afghan prayer leaders have Proof of Registration, issued in their favour by UNHCR. The government has already declared December 31, 2015, as the deadline for all Afghan nationals possessing POR and other documents to leave the country.

According to official data, there is no Afghan religious scholar in the following K-P districts: Swat, Buner, Chitral, Torghar, Haripur, Kohistan, Battagram, Shangla, Karak, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Tank.

However, officials from Home and Tribal Affairs Department claim that after the deadly Peshawar School attack, Afghan prayer leaders have left most of the southern districts for their home country.

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Re: KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

fact check: people from Afghanistan are called Afghan not Afghani..that is the currency.

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Re: KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

Awe.. going thru special days of have-to-prove-someone-wrong syndrome effects? How cute .. :wub:

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Re: KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

Yes Afghanis err Afghans.. time to go home!!

Time to go home: Fresh crackdown to target unregistered Afghan refugees – The Express Tribune

Time to go home: Fresh crackdown to target unregistered Afghan refugees

By Zahid Gishkori
Published: March 2, 2015

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Kabul authorities are visiting Pakistan on March 11 to discuss repatriation process. PHOTO: INP

**ISLAMABAD: **Since non-documented Afghan refugees are considered ‘a serious threat’ to the national security particularly after the December 16 brutal attack on APS in Peshawar, the government in Islamabad has kicked off a fresh crackdown against the illegal expatriates.

While considering them a serious security risk under its new policy being swiftly executed under the National Action Plan (NAP), the government has started a fresh crackdown against hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees who otherwise failed to produce legal documents, well-informed officials said on Sunday. “We consider unregistered Afghan refugees a security threat, that is why law enforcement agencies have been directed to push them back home,” a senior official of the Ministry of Interior said.

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A tripartite meeting will also decide about the fate of some 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees after senior officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR are set to meet in Geneva on March 16, he revealed.
Law enforcement agencies, the senior official said, have pushed an estimated 47,000 Afghans who were staying illegally since we started executing the National Action Plan eight weeks ago, he added.
Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already decided in principle to repatriate all Afghan refugees by December 31, 2015. “We will not extend their stay. They will have to return at all costs,” he told The Express Tribune. To comply with orders relating to the execution of the NAP, provincial authorities, with cooperation of federal government, are bound to clear all unregistered Afghans, the federal minister explained.
Secretary SAFRON Pir Bakhsh Jamali revealed that Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Said Hussain Alimi Balkhi will be visiting Pakistan on March 11 to discuss issues linked to repatriation of Afghan refugees.
The 11-member delegation will meet senior Cabinet members and representatives of UNHCR in Islamabad, he said. “We expect Afghan authorities will welcome their citizens now,” Jamali hoped.
SAFRON ministry officials, who were assigned to register all non-documented Afghans, said they have yet to execute this key assignment as finance division did not release Rs680 million for this purpose. How will we meet our deadline [June 2015] to register more than one million unregistered Afghans when we have no funds either from the Ministry of Finance or the UNHCR,” he questioned.
International community must understand Pakistan’s concerns and assist it to repatriate millions of Afghans, now considered a serious threat to its national security, said Dr Nasreen Ghufran, who teaches International Relations at University of Peshawar.
“To repatriate millions of [Afghan] refugees in one go will, of course, create a humanitarian crisis,” observed Dr Ghufran. A strong will and productive plan may engage Islamabad, Kabul and international organisations to send refugees back in different stages, she suggested.
*Published in The Express Tribune, March *2[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2015.

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Re: KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

not really to prove them wrong but as a learning point :)
I do think the crackdown is understandable but also unfair as many have lived there for two generations.

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Re: KPK govt removing Afghani Imams from mosques

I hope there's a more precise criteria in place for who gets deported, who gets to stay for special circumstances (family ties, business ties, etc.), and who when found out during deportation gets to go to jail for having taken part in criminal activity.

To just remove millions of people without a proper mechanism just does not seem right or just. Perhaps we're spoiled, and expect the same process of systematic law enforcement but it's a good hope to have because some of the millions may have done right by Pakistan and remained productive members of society; though they should have registered or sought to become naturalized.

I don't know. Just doesn't seem right from the outside, but maybe there is a system in place to ensure everyone of the refugees isn't generalized and second hearings are available to consider special circumstances.