Chitral: The government has announced a new policy according to which children of Bengali and Afghan refugees who were born in Pakistan would be given Pakistani nationality. This is a landmark policy as it will naturalize tens of thousands of refugees who so far though living in Pakistan considered themselves to be aliens and thus mentally did not owe anything to this country.

The refugee boom in Chitral in early eighties has caused many children born in Afghan refugee camps who are now in their twenties and thirties and many are established businessmen having good part in Chitral’s economic activities due to their intrinsic hardworking nature.

The latest policy announcement is a wise step as those who get Pakistani nationality will develop a soft corner for the country and this may help in curbing terrorism coming from the other side of the border aided by local facilitators often refugees, who did not own Pakistan thus far as they were treated as underdogs.??.. CN report, 18 Sep 2018