Asylum seeking Pakistanis wrongly declared as Afghans.

Byline: Imran Mukhtar

ISLAMABAD -- The Senate Implementation Committee Tuesday directed the Ministry of Interior to work out a mechanism to issue Pakistan Origin Cards (POC) to those Pakistanis who, in the past, took asylum in European countries by wrongly declaring themselves as Afghan nationals.

The meeting that met under the chair of Senator Dilawar Khan is seized of the matter of issuance of POCs to those overseas Pakistanis who are permanently living abroad by declaring themselves as Afghan nationals.

In the past, many European countries had comfortable foreign policies to give asylum status to the nationals of war-torn and landlocked Afghanistan.

The official of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) gave a briefing to the meeting on the issue.

The lawmakers observed that the 'departments concerned should work out a mechanism to deal with the cases of those people who took asylum in European countries declaring them as Afghan nationals and have now applied for Pakistani Origin Cards.'

Senate body directs ministry to resolve POC issue

'At the same time, they should take all the precautions and carry out all due diligence in formulating the mechanism so that the name of country doesn't get affected and the people also don't get treated badly,' they viewed.

While discussing the matter of problems...

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