50% of Afghans travel abroad on Pakistani passports, reveals senator

Senator Attaul Haq of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan (JUI-P) on Thursday raised concerns over Afghans travelling abroad using Pakistani passports, warning that such incidents reflect poorly on Islamabad.

Speaking at a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, he said, “Fifty per cent of Afghans travel abroad using Pakistani passports. Whenever Afghans are caught by authorities abroad, they are carrying Pakistani passports.”

An official from the Interior Ministry confirmed past occurrences but assured the committee that the practice has stopped. “In the past, when people were deported from Saudi Arabia, it was found that deportees were Afghan citizens carrying Pakistani passports,” the official said.

During the session, the committee also condemned remarks made by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi regarding the Noor Mukadam case. Justice Najafi, now part of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), had stated in an additional note that the murder was “a direct result of a vice spreading in society known as ‘living relationship’,” referring to live-in relationships.