Pakistan’s argument is that the presence of illegal migrants has led to rising crime and terror attacks and is straining its struggling economy. “There have been 24 suicide bomb attacks since January this year and 14 of them were carried out by Afghan nationals,” interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on October 3, when he announced the deportation plan. Pakistan, which is to have its national elections in January, is also reeling under hyperinflation, a balance of payment crisis and high rupee depreciation. But the solution to these woes is not the forceful deportation of 1.7 million people. The responsibility for most of the problems Pakistan now faces lies with its rulers. When its military and civilian leadership continued to play power games, trying to outwit each other and maximise powers in their hands, its economy was neglected. The security crisis it is facing today is a result of its own dual policy on terror — fighting some outfits while supporting others. When the Taliban, which were backed by Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment, recaptured power in August 2021, it was largely seen then as a victory for Pakistan’s generals. But the security crisis Pakistan is facing now suggests that the sense of victory did not last long. Skirmishes along the porous Af-Pak border are also common these days. What Pakistan is doing is scapegoating tens of thousands of poor Afghan refugees for the failures of its own policies.