SWABI: Afghans residing in two refugee camps and other areas of the district have started selling their property and household goods at much the lower price as they prepare to leave for their homeland after staying in Pakistan for decades.

They told Dawn on Tuesday they started preparing to leave for their country after the federal government decided that no extension would given to them after December 2016.

“If we get another extension it won’t be more than a year. It is clear that our stay in Pakistan is short lived now,” said an inmate of the Gandaf refugee camp, which along with the Gohati camp has housed 36,000 and 22,500 Afghan refugees, respectively, for decades.

After the directions to leave the country, the Afghans living in urban neighbourhoods of the district have started selling their immovable properties. And, locals have showed great interest in purchasing these due to their low prices.

“A well-constructed eight-marla house in our neighborhood was sold at Rs2.7 million by Wahid, an Afghan, the other day,” said Mohammad Rafiq of Topi.

Afghan refugees have also displayed their household items at Topi bypass, where a number of locals visit to purchase them.

“I have bought an electricity stabiliser at Rs5,000, which could hardly be acquired at Rs10,000 in the market,” Javid Khan of Topi city said.

The locals said Afghans preferred not to take electric appliances with them as they believed they won’t have electricity supply back home in Afghanistan.

Along with other things, the Afghans are also selling their cattle, with local butchers buying the livestock at much lower prices.

However, Afghans feel highly perturbed as they are not assured they would get eatables and other items of daily use at arrival in their home country. They are also weary of finding no economic opportunities in Afghanistan like Pakistan, where they earned their living with ‘dignity and honour’.

“We are expected to stay in tents in our country unlike Pakistan where we lived either in our own houses or rented ones,” said Ahmad Shah, adding they would be strangers in their own homeland, and would face increasing problems in starting a new life.

Azmat Shah, a 9th grader, said he never thought his family would return to Afghanistan one day. “We lived in Topi city for a lifetime, and don’t know how we will cope a life lived in a tent back in Afghanistan,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016