ISLAMABAD — A high court in Pakistan prohibited authorities Friday from forcibly deporting Afghan musicians and singers until their asylum cases are resolved within the next two months.
The ruling comes amid a crackdown on hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring Afghanistan who either lack legal permits to reside in the country or have overstayed their visas.
They sought refuge in Pakistan after Taliban insurgents swept back to power in Kabul in 2021, placing sweeping curbs on civil liberties and banning music in line with their strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Sharia.
However, a group of 150 Afghan performers initiated a legal challenge against their deportation in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, arguing they are at risk of persecution if they return home.
“The federal government … shall decide cases of all these petitioners for grant or refusal of asylum within a period of two months,” the Pakistan court stated Friday.
“Until the final decision, these petitioners shall not be ousted from [the] territory of Pakistan nor otherwise compelled to leave Pakistan and return to their native country Afghanistan,” the ruling read.
The court mandated that the Pakistan Interior Ministry permit petitioners to remain in the country if the government cannot resolve their cases within 60 days and requires additional time for a definitive decision.
Attorney Mumtaz Ahmed told The Associated Press that Friday’s ruling was the first of its kind and a significant relief for his clients, who have lived in fear and uncertainty for months.
Pakistan unleashed a nationwide crackdown on foreign migrants living in the country illegally in 2023. The move primarily affected Afghan refugees, forcing more than 800,000 of them to return to their impoverished country, which is struggling to recover from years of devastating war and natural disasters since the Taliban takeover.
Refugee families have been reluctant to leave Pakistan, citing the Taliban’s ban on Afghan girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and restrictions on women’s access to workplaces except for a few departments, including health, immigration and police.
People at risk of deportation include Afghan nationals who are awaiting responses from the United States and European nations regarding their asylum applications. Many refugees served as translators and guides for U.S.-led international forces during their two-decade presence in Afghanistan, which ended in August 2021.
The United Nations and aid organizations have criticized Pakistan’s crackdown on Afghan nationals from the outset, citing dire economic conditions and a prolonged humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Pakistan hosts over 1 million legal Afghan refugees who fled their country due to the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, the subsequent civil war and the rule of the Islamist Taliban from 1996 to 2001. The Pakistani government has permitted those refugees to remain until June 2025.
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