Pakistan’s Imran Khan vows to give citizenship to some Afghans, Bengalis

Pakistan’s new premier Imran Khan has vowed to give citizenship to some Afghan refugees and Bengali immigrants, officials confirmed Monday, granting rights to many who have lived in the country for decades.

In this handout photograph released by the National Assembly on September 4, 2018, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan casts his ballot during the presidential election at the National Assembly in Islamabad. (AFP)
Pakistan, one of the world’s largest refugee-hosting nations, is home to roughly 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, some of whom have lived in the country since fleeing the Soviet invasion of 1979.

There are also roughly a quarter of a million Bengalis, many of whom arrived during Pakistan’s civil war in 1971, when East Pakistan broke away to declare independence and become Bangladesh.

Khan, who visited Karachi on Sunday, told a fundraising dinner that his government would take steps to grant nationality to those who had been there longest.

“The first thing I will do going back (to Islamabad), God willing, is that we will get those people from Bangladesh, who are perhaps living here for more than 40 years and their children have grown older, issued passports and national identity cards,” he said, according to footage of the dinner seen by AFP.