Finally, the cat is out of the bag: Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are at the lowest ebb, despite the wishful thinking of Pakistan that the Afghan Taliban were pro-Pakistani, but the reality is stuck in the opposite direction. In the wake of further deteriorating relations, Pakistan’s government has decided to repatriate illegal Afghan refugees, which are estimated around 1.3 million in the country. For obvious audience asked how we ended up having so many Afghan refugees in the country. Complex historical relations between neighbors is the simple answer. There are three vivid waves of Afghan refugees in Pakistan: The first one at the time of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan during the 1980s, the second was about the USA’s invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government and finally last large influx of refugee came to Pakistan following reign of Taliban on Aug 2021. There are reports of 0.6 to 0.8 million Afghans leaving the country, since the rule of the Taliban, to settle down in Pakistan.

Keep in mind that these Afghan refugees have become an integral part of Pakistan’s society, economy and politics, and there is no way to keep them all out of the country. For example, most Afghan refugees are the cornerstone of Pakistan’s informal economy which provides goods and services to people at a cheaper rate. In the political realm, nationalist parties of KPK and........

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