<p style="text-align: justify;">KABUL (Pajhwok): Pakistan-based Afghan journalists are being issued with cards by their joint association -- in an effort to help resolve their problems.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Last week, Pajhwok published a <a href="https://pajhwok.com/2023/03/27/afghan-journalists-in-pakistan-faced-with-a-host-of-problems/">report</a> regarding Pakistan-based Afghan journalists, who complained of problems such as the expiry of visas, passports, harassment by police and economic hardships.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Expiry of visas and passports, harassment by Pakistani police, house searches, demand for bribes to escape detention, financial handicaps and high rents are among the problems they are facing in Pakistan.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Haunted by an uncertain fate, some of them are suffering from mental illnesses and their children are missing out on an education.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Qamar Yousafzai, head of the Pak-Afghan Journalists Association, told Pajhwok Afghan News they started distributing cards to Afghan journalists in Pakistan on Tuesday.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">He said the cards had been prepared by the association with the help of the National Club and the Pakistan Journalists Federal Association.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">He informed they had received requests from 150 Afghan journalists. After evaluation by the community group, 120 of them were found eligible for the cards.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">According to Yousafzai, these cards can help Afghan journalists in Pakistan in terms of accommodation, free medical treatment and an end to harassment by police.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Yousafzai said journalists were given the cards free of cost. “Cooperation from international organisations is needed to address problems of Afghan journalists in Pakistan.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-528079 " src="https://pajhwok.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/b3921033-09e9-4cdb-b34d-c9b5cf97a83b-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="556" height="417" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Mohammad Jan Tamkin, another member of the association and Afghan journalist in Pakistan, said: “You know the name of journalists has been misused here. No matter how many promises have been made to them, most have not been implemented.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">He urged the journalists to break the “fraud” and start practical work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Tamkin added he was currently striving to submit a list of genuine journalists to the UNHCR for cooperation on issuance of refugee cards.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">sa/mud</p>
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