Islamabad, Aug 05: In an attempt to crackdown on illegal immigrants, especially Bengalis and Burmese, Pakistan has decided to register cases against officials involved in false verification of aliens as natives, and tighten citizenship norms. "Pakistan has decided to conduct a crackdown on illegal immigrants focussing especially on about 1.3 million illegal Bengalis and Burmese, besides other unregistered aliens settled in the country", a news agency said quoting officials. The measures would also include registration of cases against government officials and councilors, involved in illegal verifications of the aliens as citizens of Pakistan, it said. Besides, in future, no document other than that of citizenship, would be accepted by the authorities, the sources said.
The sources disclosed that currently about 38,000 applications of Bengalis, for computerized national identity cards, have been withheld by the registration authority, adding that about 6,000 cases of attesting and verifying fake documents were to be registered.
According to the strategy, the registration authority would refer the cases to the federal investigation authority for action against the persons involved in attesting fake or forged registration documents of aliens.
The estimated number of Bengalis, mostly settled in Karachi, was said to be 1.1 million, while, reportedly, there were 0.2 million Burmese all over the country.


During the last one and a half year, nearly 26,000 aliens, including Afghan refugees, had also got themselves registered, the sources said.

Bureau Report