ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Monday that Afghan refugees who held valid registration cards in Pakistan which granted them legal status would be allowed to open bank accounts.
Pakistan is home to 2.5 million Afghans, the world’s second-largest refugee population, of which 1.4 million are legally recognised through ‘Proof of Registration’ cards issued by the host government.
“I have issued instructions today that Afghan refugees who are registered can open bank accounts and from now onwards they can participate in the formal economy of the country,” the prime minister said in a Twitter post. “This should have been done a long time ago.”
The move aims to harness the economic potential of Afghan refugees by allowing them to open accounts at any Pakistan bank and enabling them to deposit and withdraw cash, carry out bank transfers, set up direct debits and make payments with cards.
Afghans have long complained about harassment and denial of work-related and other opportunities due to the absence of citizenship rights, even for those who have been born in Pakistan or spent decades living and working there.
Efforts by the Pakistan government to ease life for Afghan refugees will also be seen as a confidence building measure by Kabul, with whom relations have been particularly frosty in recent years.
Afghanistan accuses Islamabad of harbouring Taliban militants who carry out attacks across the border. Pakistan vehemently denies the charge and blames Afghanistan for providing safe havens to indigenous Pakistani Taliban militants who have carried out major attacks on its soil, including a siege on an army school in 2014 in which 134 children perished.
Experts said the prime minister's announcement was likely backed by Pakistan’s all-powerful military and linked to ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to a 17-year-long war in Afghan between Taliban insurgents and a Western-backed government.
"By helping the Afghan refugees [by allowing bank accounts] Pakistan can ensure the Afghan government and the international community that it is whole heartedly supporting the peace process in Afghanistan,” political commentator Qamar Cheema told Arab News.
Aid agencies estimate that 1.5 million Afghans have been internally displaced by conflict, with U.N. figures showing 600,000 uprooted by conflict and drought in the past year alone.
Some three million Afghans have returned from camps in Pakistan and Iran since 2015, many ending up in squatter villages. Humanitarian agencies warn that any big influx of people back to Afghanistan would seriously test the ability of the government and international agencies to cope.
