Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (Safron), Kana, Water and Power, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said on Sunday that Pakistan wanted to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of the Afghan refugees in an honourable and dignified manner.
He was addressing a certificate distribution ceremony of Afghan female students of physiotherapy here at a local hotel.
Sherpao said government of Pakistan was doing its utmost effort to mitigate the sufferings of the brotherly Muslim neighbour Afghanistan and for this purpose all possible efforts are being made to ensure speedy reconstruction of that war ravaged country.
He said, Pakistan is still home to over 3.5 million Afghan refugees whereas the target of voluntary repatriation of two million refugees will be completed on Monday, May 10 by sending a batch of refugees from Islamabad.
About 0.1 million refugees repatriated from March 2004 till date, he said adding that by the end of this year, half a million DPs will return home.
The federal minister said, since infrastructure of Afghanistan has completely devastated during the continuous war, therefore, a lot of efforts required to be made to develop the infrastructure particularly in health and human development.
Sherpao contended that Pakistan wanted amicable and peaceful settlement of this ongoing unrest in Afghanistan in order to create conducive atmosphere for the return of the DPs.
He lauded the efforts of Habib Physiotherapy Complex in extending the necessary training to the Afghan female students in the field of physiotherapy. He hoped that the passed out students would look after the ailing community in their country in much better way.
The function was addressed by UNHCR's representative Nasir Azam Khan, Dr Mahboobur Rehman, PPP(S) MPA Riffat Akbar Swati and representative of IRC Miss Keller.
Later, Sherpao gave away certificates to 18 Afghan girl students who underwent specialised physiotherapy training.
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