Government on Wednesday gave 1.6 million Afghan refugees the right to stay another six months, extending a deadline on their residency papers that had been due to expire at the end of December. The decision was taken by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, according to a statement from his office. His spokesman confirmed that Afghan refugees would now be entitled to stay in Pakistan until the end of June 2013.

A spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency said Pakistan had promised not to expel any registered refugee. "We got assurances from Pakistan that they would respect the voluntary nature of returns and would not expel any registered refugee," Duniya Aslam Khan told AFP.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012