ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah said on Thursday a person born in Pakistan only required a birth certificate to be called a Pakistani and citizenship was his or her right, local media widely reported, bringing into the spotlight the plight of millions of Afghan refugees living in the South Asian nation.

Pakistan is home to around 2.8 million Afghan refugees, including 1.5 million registered and 1.3 million unregistered Afghans, according to the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR. After the Taliban takeover of the war-battered country in August 2021, some 250,000 additional Afghans took shelter in neighboring Pakistan.

Afghans have long complained about constant harassment due to the lack of citizenship rights for those who have spent decades living and working in Pakistan.

The Islamabad chief justice’s remarks came during the hearing of a case pertaining to the issue of granting citizenship to a child born to an Afghan refugee family in Pakistan.

“A 24-year-old Afghan born in Pakistan [Fazal Haq] had filed an application in the court seeking Pakistani citizenship. On behalf of Fazal Haq, lawyer Umer Ijaz Gilani appeared in the court,” Samaa reported. “The lawyer said his client spent 24 years in Pakistan without any citizenship. The court ordered to grant petitioner Pakistani nationality.”

Minallah said Pakistani law allowed citizenship to every child born in the country, ordering the interior ministry to complete the legal process in the case by next Friday, Oct. 28, and submit a report.

The interior ministry’s counsel assured the court the ministry would immediately verify the birth certificate of the Afghan.

The case was adjourned until Oct. 28.