Saqib Khan has been living in miserable conditions in Pakistan for the past two decades but he still does not want to go back to his homeland - Afghanistan.

"What will I do there?" asked the bearded, 50-year-old Afghan when asked why he will choose not go home.

"Here I pull a donkey-cart and earn about 80 rupees (US$1.4) a day but in Afghanistan I will not even have this job," he said.

As he spoke, several children with grubby faces and ragged clothes looked on inside a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital.

Millions of Afghans like Khan live in Pakistan.

Many spend their days in refugee camps of mud-walled huts separated by rubbish-strewn dirt streets.

Despite the squalor, most do not want to go home.

The Pakistan Government, in co-ordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, launched a census last week to at least determine how many Afghans are in Pakistan.

The ultimate goal of the census is to develop a plan to help them settle or return home.

"This census is not aimed at encouraging refugees to repatriate," Indrike Ratwatte, senior co-ordinator for UNHCR operations in Pakistan said.

"We want to have definite information which is necessary for developing policies for those Afghans who live here."

Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran during the former Soviet Union's occupation of their country in the 1980s and a civil war in the 1990s.

Even more poured across the border after the US-led invasion in late 2001.

The exact number of refugees in Pakistan is not known but the government estimates close to 3 million Afghans live throughout the country.

At the same time, officials at the UNHCR estimate about 1 million men, women and children live in refugee camps.

'Pray for us'

Some observers say it is an uphill task for Pakistan to persuade Afghans to return to their country as a large number of them are making money from businesses in cities such as the capital, Islamabad, and the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

They have set up showrooms for traditional, hand-woven Afghan rugs in posh neighborhoods of Islamabad and Peshawar.

They also run hotels, restaurants and some other businesses in the country.

While many Afghans are reluctant to go home because of economic difficulties, some said security was still a major concern despite fewer attacks by supporters of the ousted Taliban.

"You never know when fighting flares up again," said Sar Faraz.

He is a grey-haired man from Afghanistan's southeastern province of Ghazni who has been living in Pakistan for more than a decade and a half.

"We will not return until all those who claim to be mujahideen (holy warriors) are disarmed," he said.

He was referring to the fighters who ended the former Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan but went on to battle for years over the spoils of their victory.

Participation in the census is mandatory for all Afghans who have come to Pakistan since December 1979 but officials said they would not force refugees out.

In the past three years, the UNHCR has helped nearly 2.3 million Afghans go home from Pakistan.

It expects to help another 400,000 return to their native Afghanistan in 2005.

The refugee agency says a voluntary repatriation program will resume on March 7.

The program was suspended over the winter.

(China Daily February 28, 2005)