ISLAMABAD: Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan met on Wednesday to discuss the way forward in ensuring the “dignified, gradual and voluntary” repatriation of refugees, with both sides agreeing to adhere to the stipulated timeline for the process.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are nearly 1.4 million Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan, a figure which Islamabad narrows down to an additional half-million unregistered migrants.
“The joint agreement is to have a dignified, gradual and voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees in the next round of the meeting,” Zardasht Shams, Afghanistan’s deputy head of mission in Islamabad, told Arab News.
He added that representatives also deliberated upon how to work together for a timely and complete return of Afghan nationals. “It is a process…And these are the preliminary meetings and the rules of procedure were agreed upon,” Shams added.
Official data shows that Pakistan has 63 camps for registered Afghan refugees — a third live in camps, while an estimated 68 percent reside in other areas.
Mohamed Aslam from Pakistan’s Ministry of States and Frontier Region said that the next meeting for the initiative would take place in Kabul.
Islamabad, Kabul hold talks for repatriating refugees
Islamabad, Kabul hold talks for repatriating refugees
- Promise to work toward “dignified” return of nearly 1.4 million Afghans
- Official data shows that Pakistan has 63 camps for registered migrants
Pakistan reports current account surplus in Jan. owing to improved trade, remittances
- Pakistan’s exports crossed the $3 billion mark in Jan. as the country received $3.5 billion in remittances
- Last month, IMF urged Pakistan to accelerate pace of structural reforms to strengthen economic growth
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan recorded a current account surplus of more than $120 million in January, the country’s finance adviser said on Tuesday, attributing it to improved trade balance and remittance inflows.
Pakistan’s exports rebounded in January 2026 after five months of weak performance, rising 3.73 percent year on year and surging 34.96 percent month on month, according to data released by the country’s statistics bureau.
Exports crossed the $3 billion mark for the first time in January to reach $3.061 billion, compared to $2.27 billion in Dec. 2025. The country received $3.5 billion in foreign remittances in Jan. 2026.
Khurram Schehzad, an adviser to the finance minister, said Pakistan reported a current account surplus of $121 million in Jan., compared to a current account deficit of $393 million in the same month last year.
“Improved trade balance in January 2026, strong remittance inflows, and sustained momentum in services exports (IT/Tech) continue to reinforce the country’s external account position,” he said on X.
Pakistan has undergone a difficult period of stabilization, marked by inflation, currency depreciation and financing gaps, and international rating agencies have acknowledged improvements after Islamabad began implementing reforms such as privatizing loss-making, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and ending subsidies as part of a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program.
Late last month, the IMF urged Pakistan to accelerate the pace of these structural reforms to strengthen economic growth.
Responding to questions from Arab News at a virtual media roundtable on emerging markets’ resilience, IMF’s director of the Middle East and Central Asia Jihad Azour said Islamabad’s implementation of the IMF requirements had been “strong” despite devastating floods that killed more than 1,000 people and devastated farmland, forcing the government to revise its 4.2 percent growth target to 3.9 percent.
“What is important going forward in order to strengthen growth and to maintain the level of macroeconomic stability is to accelerate the structural reforms,” he said at the meeting.
Azour underlined Pakistan’s plans to privatize some of the SOEs and improve financial management of important public entities, particularly power companies, as an important way for the country to boost its capacity to cater to the economy for additional exports.
“This comes in addition to the effort that the authorities have made in order to reform their tariffs, which will allow the private sector of Pakistan to become more competitive,” the IMF official said.
