The caretaker governments of Punjab and Balochistan have reiterated their commitment to strictly adhere to the deadline set for the expulsion of foreigners residing illegally in Pakistan.

The caretaker governments of Punjab and Balochistan on Friday reiterated their commitment to strictly adhere to the October 31 deadline to expel foreigners residing illegally in Pakistan .

According to the news agency AFP, the Pakistani government has ordered 1.7 million Afghans to leave the country by November 1 or deport them, which the government says are living in the country illegally.

Millions of Afghans have crossed the border during the decades-long conflict in Afghanistan, making Pakistan one of the world's largest refugee populations.

But since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, relations between the two countries have continued to sour.

According to an estimate, millions of Afghans have crossed the border since then.

Pakistan says that Afghan citizens are being deported to protect the country's 'welfare and security'.

Although the deadline to leave Pakistan is still a few days away, the police have already started raiding and detaining Afghan nationals.

On Friday, hundreds of Afghan families gathered at the border post with supplies to cross the border.

Border official Hakimullah told AFP, "Women are facing many problems at the border, especially pregnant women and disabled people. You can see them waiting for their turn for hours.'

Officials say more than 2,000 people are being processed every day, most of them laborers and traders who frequently cross the border.

Around 60,000 Afghans have crossed the border 'voluntarily' in recent weeks, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government spokesman Feroze Jamal told AFP.

36 temporary camps in Punjab

Punjab's caretaker information minister Aamir Mir said in a press conference today that 33,000 foreigners living illegally in the province have been identified and the provincial cabinet has approved their expulsion from the country.

He said that temporary camps would be set up at 36 locations across the province, in which the arrested illegal aliens would be kept.

He clarified that after October 31, legal action will be taken in case of asylum to foreigners.

According to the provincial minister, no action will be taken against those who leave Pakistan voluntarily.

He said: 'It is being decided through which border crossings the arrested foreigners will be sent back.' 

Aamir clarified: 'Action is not being taken against any particular community, those who have POR cards will not be told anything.

'A person enters any country in the world and is deported if he does not have documents.'

'Exemption for grass and spin boldak illegal'

Balochistan's Caretaker Information Minister John Achakzai said in a press conference in Quetta that all foreigners will be expelled from Pakistan and this is the final decision, which the government will implement with full force. 

John Achakzai said some people are demanding immunity for Chaman and Spinboldak, which is an illegal demand and cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

"No such relief will be given that the extremists can take advantage of. In case of exemption to Chaman, Chitral, Waziristan and Mohmand can also make this demand.

He clarified that after November 1, no Afghan citizen will be allowed to enter without a passport from the Chaman border.

He said that Haji Camp in Quetta will be used as a holding center for illegal immigrants and more centers will be established if required.

John Achakzai said that illegal immigrants from Sindh and Punjab will also be sent abroad from Chaman. 

He further informed that after the deadline, all relevant agencies will start the process of deporting illegal aliens and a control center will be established, which will have representatives of relevant agencies.

Apart from Chaman, crossing points are being opened at Qila Saifullah and Chagai.

All citizens in Balochistan have been instructed to vacate their homes from illegally staying foreigners.

"During the operation, action will be taken against the owner of the house in which the illegal immigrant was found."  

The dharna of political parties and businessmen in Chaman district of Balochistan has been going on for seven days to abolish the passport requirement for crossing Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

According to Dharna, more than 10,000 people cross the Chaman border every day for the purpose of business, bringing handicrafts from there to supply the markets in Chaman and then Lahore and Karachi.  

Mahmood Khan Achakzai, head of Pashtun Khawmli Awami Party, said in a public gathering in Sanjawi on Friday that the condition of passport at Chaman border will not be accepted under any circumstances.

In this world, no one goes to his land, graveyard and relatives with a passport. The government should make the right decisions, Ferengi, who drew the Durand Line on the Afghan border, also allowed us to be brought.

India : Will adultery and homosexuality come under the ambit of crime again? Parliamentary committee can recommend

"To protect the institution of marriage, this section (497 of the IPC) should be retained in the Code by making it gender-neutral," the unpublished draft report said.

New Delhi : A parliamentary committee is likely to recommend criminalizing adultery laws and non-consensual sexual relations between men, women and trans people as part of an overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws. Sources said the panel is studying three bills to replace the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act - the Indian Judicial Code, the Indian Civil Protection Code and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively.

The bills introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah were sent to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by BJP MP Brij Lal, for further scrutiny in August with a deadline of three months.

The committee met on Friday, but the draft report on the bills was not adopted as opposition members sought a three-month extension. The next meeting will be held on 6 November.

The draft report is expected to recommend that adultery be made a crime again by reinstating a law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2018 or by passing a new law.

In 2018, a five-judge bench ruled that "Adultery cannot and should not be a criminal offence. It can be a civil offense ground for divorce." Then Chief Justice Dipak Misra had said, also arguing that the 163-year-old, colonial-era law followed the invalid concept of the husband being the owner of the wife.

The law then stated that a man who had sexual intercourse with a married woman without her husband's consent could face a prison term of five years if found guilty. The woman will not be punished.

The report is likely to recommend that the removed provision on adultery be made gender-neutral when brought back, meaning both men and women could face punishment.

"To protect the institution of marriage, this section (497 of the IPC) should be retained in the Code by making it gender-neutral," the unpublished draft report said.

Meanwhile, the committee also reportedly discussed Section 377 – a British-era provision that criminalized homosexuality and which was also struck down by the Supreme Court five years ago .

The committee is expected to recommend to the government, which had opposed decriminalization of both 377 and 497, that it is mandatory to re-enact and retain section 377 of the IPC.

The committee argued that although the court has found this section to be violative of Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, the provisions of Section 377 prohibit "non-consensual physical intercourse with adults, as well as all acts of physical intercourse with minors, And will be applicable in cases of acts of bestiality."

"However, now in the Indian Judicial Code, there is no provision for non-consensual sexual crimes and bestiality against men, women, transgenders etc."

Other

possible recommendations include increasing the sentence for deaths caused by negligence from six months to five years and reducing the sentence for unauthorized protests from two years to 12 months. The committee can also say that the name of the Indian Penal Code should be retained.