To another question, he said Pakistan and Afghanistan should sit and talk about the Torkham border issue, otherwise, they should leave this matter to China and the United States; they will figure it out within two weeks. When asked if Pakistani Pashtuns were unhappy over Pakistan's decision to build gates at the Afghan border, the PK-MAP leader said that Torkham and forced repatriation of Afghan refugees are two separate issues and Pashtuns are concerned about the matters of Afghan refugees.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai, whose elder brother is Governor of Balochistan, said he would not allow the harassment of Afghans on their own soil. Political analysts said that Mahmood Khan Achakzai was speaking the language of Afghanistan and its refugees who are a big burden on the Pakistan economy.
PTI leader Shaukat Yusufzai speaking on the statement of Achakzai said Achakzai never spoke in support of Pakistan. He said "if Achakzai has so much love for Afghanistan, he should plead their case with the Afghan government and also himself move to that country." He said the statement of Achakzai was based on personal interests.
Talking to media persons informally, Minister for States and Frontier Region Lieutenant General Retd Abdul Qadir Baloch said that Afghans cannot be allowed to stay in Pakistan any longer. He said the Afghans have been occupying one million jobs in Pakistan. He said the government wants an honourable return of the refugees.
The Minister said that Afghanistan government has not honoured its commitment regarding return of the refugees. He said the Afghan government was given a plan for the return of the refugees but it has not been implemented. He said complaints of the KPK government about Afghan refugees are justified.
BR's MONITORING DESK adds: Chief of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai has clarified his position vis-à-vis his interview to Afghanistan Times, saying that his statement about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was presented in wrong perspective. Talking to Aaj News on Thursday, Achakzai said that as far as facts were concerned, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was part of Afghanistan before Durand Line Agreement in 1893. He did not say that KP was now part of Afghanistan.
He defended the presence of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, saying that if nobody was willing to host them, they should be sent to Quetta. "No agency has any right to take action against the Afghan refugees who contribute to Pakistani economy as well," he said. He proposed that Afghan refugees must be issued special cards so that they could live and do work in an honourable way in Pakistan.