Pakistan, Nov. 1 -- Pakistan's UN envoy this week urged the international community to "step up" and shoulder its responsibility in facilitating vulnerable Afghan refugees, urging Kabul to act against militants and end restrictions against women and girls in the country. Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, through subsequent decades of war and the Taliban's return to power in Kabul in 2021. However, Pakistan launched a deportation drive in 2023 to expel undocumented citizens, citing security and economic reasons. The drive has since been expanded to include Afghans carrying government-issued documentation that had previously allowed them to remain in Pakistan.

Pakistan has always main...