ISLAMABAD – The Senate was told on Wednesday that around three million illegal immigrants, excluding Afghans nationals, were living in Pakistan. “Among these three million, 50,000 are African people and 35,000 out of them are living in Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi while the remaining are living in other cities of the country,” State Minister for Interior Affairs Tasnim Ahamd Qureshi told the Upper House.
The state minister also said four cases were registered in 2008, two in 2009 and one in 2010 against foreigners for illegally residing in Pakistan. The minister failed to satisfy the members when they asked him why the government was not taking steps to repatriate those illegal residents. The minister faced another occasion of embarrassment when some members pointed out that only the names of Rehman Malik and Sajjad Haider were included in the answer of a question about the total number of people granted pardon by the president whereas a province-wise breakup showed figures nil.
They asked the minister which area of the country Rehman Malik and Sajjad Haider belonged to if no one from the provinces was pardoned by the president. The minister also failed to answer when asked who had pardoned Riaz Sheikh if not the president. The Senate chairman at this moment told the minister to come to attend the house after having homework completely done. The Senate was told through a written reply that the Ministry of Interior had paid no money to the United Nations team that probed the case of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
The members insisted that the government had paid some amount to the UN as it was on record. However, the state minister for interior added Rs 11 million were spent on residence and logistics of the UN team during its stay in Pakistan.
