Community members of Afghan community living in Jand district Attock shared In SHURA meeting ( conducted on 8th-march-17 ) that under the policy shift of Govt.of Pakistan for Afghan refugees the Afghan refugees are not issued the Stamp paper by stamp vendors even though they are legally registered having PoR cards. This creates hurdle to make any business activity /agreement. To resolve the issue SHARP-Pakistan team visited some stamp vendors and inquired about the issue. They shared that the orders from the concerned Assistant Commissioner (AC) restricts them to issue Stamp Papers to Afghan refugees to avoid any unfavorable circumstances under security concerns prevailing in the country. The team asked for the copy of such orders. The vendors responded that they have verbal instructions from the office.
The team visited AC Office repeatedly, held meeting with Mr. Mansoor AC, and discussed the issue highlighting the legal status of afghan refugees and extension of PoR cards by the end of the year 2017. UNHCR/SHARP mandate was shared with AC. Furthermore, the problems faced by Afghans due to non-issuance of Stamp papers were highlighted. Mr. Mansoor shared that no such orders were issued from his office. Instead, the stamp venders moved to exploit Afghan refugees by their own.
The AC assured to call a meeting of all stamp venders under his jurisdiction to ensure issuance of stamp papers to all without discrimination of afghan and non-afghan/local.