LAHORE, Feb 27: The first report of the country-wide census being conducted by the UNHCR and the government to exactly know the total number of Afghan nationals living here would be made public by the middle of next month (March).

This was stated by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative Jack Redden, who visited an Afghan locality near Saggian bridge here to supervise the process. According to him, the census was also started in Balochistan on Sunday despite rain, covering the entire country.

Mr Redden asked from Afghan nationals their names and those of the heads of their families, number of family members, their present occupation, children below five years of age, and their willingness to return home in Afghanistan. He was assisted by officials who also acted as interpreters.

He said the census was covering all categories of Afghan nationals who had to take refuge in Pakistan after the USSR invaded their country in 1979, traders, businessmen and others.

According to Mr Redden, the Afghan nationals who had obtained a valid Pakistani national identity would not be included in the census. "This is the job of the Pakistan government to handle those who had wrongfully obtained such cards," he said.

He said the UNHCR had been providing assistance to Afghan refugees in Pakistan and elsewhere with donations from foreign countries. But since these donations had decreased now it was planning to re-assess its role and the census was a part of it.

He said the UNHCR provided assistance only to the Afghans in refugee camps and it would continue to do so. The census had started on Feb 26 and would conclude on March 5, covering all areas of the country. Some 2,000 government employees in 1,320 teams, comprising one man and one woman each, are recording the bio-data of all Afghans who arrived in Pakistan since Dec 1, 1979.

It was announced last month after a meeting in Islamabad between Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers. The SAFRON deals with Afghan refugees.

The $750,000 census, financed by the UNHCR, will provide the first firm figures of Afghans in Pakistan. It will show when they arrived here, place of origin, where they are now living, current livelihoods and their intention to repatriate.

Participation is mandatory for all Afghans who came since December 1979, when the Soviet invasion sent Afghanistan into a downward spiral of violence. Those who do not will be excluded from a proposed subsequent registration designed to provide some sort of individual document.

At present the government estimates that nearly three million Afghans live in all parts of Pakistan, while the UNHCR estimates that about a million live just in refugee camps.

The teams of enumerators are visiting areas surveyed over the past two months in a "mapping exercise" that identified the residences of Afghans in all four provinces. A major test of the procedures was conducted on Feb 14 in areas around the country to make last-minute alterations to the methods.