ISLAMABAD: Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Talha Mahmood has announced to start a registration drive for unregistered Afghan refugees in the country.

Responding to a question during Question Hour in the National Assembly on Monday, he said there are 1,282,963 registered Afghan refugees residing in the country. He said additionally 136,490 undocumented members of registered families have also been documented whose confirmation is in process. The Minister said the drive exercise will ensure to compile complete data of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees as well as those, who have gone back to Afghanistan.

Responding to another question, Parliamentary Secretary Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Agha Rafiullah said the government has taken multiple steps to resolve problems of Pakistani immigrants including appointment of Community Welfare Attaches in Pakistan Missions abroad. He said there is a well-defined mechanism in the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources Development for monitoring the performance of these attaches.