Overview

• Pakistan's Supreme Court has begun hearings on a petition by human rights activists seeking to halt the forceful deportation of Afghans born in Pakistan and those at risk if returned to Afghanistan.
• The deportations are part of a nationwide crackdown by the Pakistani government on Afghans in the country without proper documentation, which has led to hundreds of thousands returning to Afghanistan.
• Human rights activists, U.N. officials and others have denounced Pakistan’s policy and urged Islamabad to reconsider.
• Senior lawyer Umar Gilani, representing the petitioners, argued that the current interim government in Pakistan does not have the authority to introduce such major policy shifts.
• Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province has set a target of deporting 10,000 Afghans per day who are in the country illegally.