Pakistan Presses UN for Global Burden-Sharing on Afghan Refugees, Calls Out Taliban on Terror and Rights

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations called on the international community Friday to “step up” and assume its share of responsibility for vulnerable Afghan refugees, while simultaneously urging Kabul to dismantle militant sanctuaries and reverse its systematic oppression of women and girls.

For over four decades—spanning the 1979 Soviet invasion, successive civil wars, and the Taliban’s 2021 return to power—Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans. In 2023, however, Islamabad launched a deportation campaign targeting undocumented nationals, citing security and economic pressures. That drive has since widened to encompass Afghans holding government-issued documentation that previously granted them legal stay. Pakistani officials say more than 2.4 million Afghan refugees have been repatriated since the policy began.

“Pakistan has urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities toward vulnerable Afghan refugees and support efforts for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan,” Counsellor Muhammad Jawad Ajmal told an Interactive Dialogue at the UN General Assembly on the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Ajmal underscored that Pakistan has borne this burden for decades, frequently without “adequate international support.” While Islamabad continues to assist vulnerable Afghans within its means, the mission stressed that the global community must share responsibility for addressing the protracted refugee crisis.

#PakistanAtUNGA

Pakistan Urges Taliban to Honour International Obligations, End Repression of Women and Girls, and Curb Terrorism from Afghan Soil

– Our Press Release

— Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN (@PakistanUN_NY) October 30, 2026

Relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated sharply in recent years. Pakistan accuses the Afghan administration of harboring militant groups that launch cross-border attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians; Kabul denies the allegations and insists Islamabad address its security challenges internally.

Ajmal specifically named the Islamic State (Daesh), Al-Qaeda, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and the Baloch Liberation Army as outfits operating from Afghan soil with Taliban acquiescence. He described a “nexus” between the Taliban and these groups, amplified by external actors backing proxy elements that target Pakistan and neighboring states.

The envoy stated that over 4,700 Pakistanis have been killed in the past three years in attacks originating from Afghanistan. He affirmed Pakistan’s right to exercise self-defense, “whenever necessary and in accordance with international law,” against any threat to its citizens and national security.

Ajmal also pressed the Afghan government to lift its sweeping restrictions on women and girls, arguing they signal Kabul’s retreat from international commitments. The United Nations has characterized the Taliban’s edicts—which bar girls from education beyond primary school and exclude women from public life—as “gender apartheid.” UN figures indicate roughly 2.4 million Afghan girls have been denied secondary education since 2021.

“Such discriminatory and abusive practices,” the Pakistani mission’s statement concluded, “are also inconsistent with Islamic laws, traditions, and the fundamental tenets of the Muslim faith.”

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