by Muhammad Fahd Waseem

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 24, 2009

Let us begin with a fact: there are many millions of Afghan refugees still in Pakistan. No one can really tell the exact number. Estimates range from half a million to over 10 million. Part of the difficulty stems from determining who can be labeled a refugee as some have been here for generations now. The porous Pak-Afghan border is not helping.

The influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan really began during the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. People fled their homes, heading for the nearest safe friendly place, the welcoming arms of the ethnic Pakhtuns of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.

A war is reason enough to flee, but a welcoming country just accelerates that process. And so it happened, Pakistan suddenly became a host to millions of refugees, and it was ill-prepared for them.

Suddenly getting millions of mouths to feed is no easy task for any country, let alone one already stretched for resources and wealth. Compounding the trouble was the fact that most Afghans were unwilling to do what they consider 'degrading tasks', jobs that would normally be associated with so called Marxian proletariats.

Conditions in refugee camps were (and still are) bad. Though the number has reduced since the relative stability of Afghanistan since the recent American 'liberation', the implications have remained simple. Afghans have proliferated into NWFPs culture. Many swathes of the NWFP capital, Peshawar, are now practically Afghan.

Significant numbers are involved in what they refer to as 'trade', which is basically a shady, and sometimes outright illegal business of import and export of common goods. Some have acquired positions of skilled labour, and yet others are involved in legal commerce. Some analysts attribute the recent terrorist issues partly to renegade Afghan refugees, but having lived in Peshawar for three years, I personally believe otherwise.

Afghans are very hard to distinguish from Pakhtuns. The implications, thus, are what you would get from a sudden overpopulation of NWFP: high population density, unemployment, gun culture, slum areas, and law and order problems.

As a common denominator, though, they are now woven into the society of NWFP. NWFP has acquired a new signature. Cyclically, this has led to the Afghans staying in Pakistan and not returning Pakhtuns and Afghans are, after all, very similar in code and conduct. Many Afghans now consider Pakistan to be a permanent home, and those who have managed to build fortunes in Pakistan are not willing to return to their home country.

The reason Afghans came to Pakistan are the same reasons all refugees have; fear for their lives. The implications and reasons the number of refugees is unlikely to decrease much are different; they are simply too well melded by now.

Learn more about this author, Muhammad Fahd Waseem.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.