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Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan Image Credit: PTI

Dubai: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued orders on Monday to allow Afghan refugees to open bank account in Pakistan.

Imran, in his tweet, said that the registered Afghan refugees would now be allowed to open bank accounts in Pakistan as part of the new initiative to allow them to be part of the formal banking system.

“I have issued instructions today that Afghan refugees who are registered can open bank accounts and from now onwards they can participate in the formal economy of the country. This should have been done a long time ago,” Imran wrote on his official twitter handle.

Pakistan has the largest refugee population in the world, according to the UN. Afghans began pouring into the country when their country was invaded in 1979 and by the end of 2001, following the US invasion, there were an estimated four million refugees in the country

Currently, there are 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan.

Last year, soon after coming into power, Imran had also announced his intention to grant citizenship to 1.5 million Afghan refugees. However, after backlash in the country, he later explained that he had raised the issue of refugee citizenship to initiate a debate and that no decision had been taken.

Imran said earlier that the lack of documentation and education had prevented the refugees from getting jobs or accessing the social security system, rendering them an underclass.

A highly-placed official in Islamabad told Gulf News that granting the right to Afghan refugees is the first step towards the move to grant them citizenship. “A large number of Afghan refugees who have been living in Pakistan for more than three decades are good businessmen and also run transport and trading businesses and it is very important to bring them into tax net and bring them into formal economy of the country,” he explained.

Under Pakistan’s constitution, anyone born in the country after 1951 has the right to citizenship. But feelings against the refugees is so strong that no leader has dared to take steps to implement the policy.

Imran’s promise was the first time any Pakistani premier has made such a vow.

The United Nations says there are 1.4 million Afghans registered as refugees in Pakistan, and estimates that some 74 percent were born in Pakistan.