A British freelance writer and photographer currently based in Pakistan has questioned Islamabad's hypocrisy over the Rohingya issue and said that the crisis in Myanmar has brought into focus the deplorable plight of Pakistan's own Rohingya population.


"Most Rohingyas in Pakistan have been unable to obtain citizenship and many do not even have a national identity card, preventing them from access to public schools, government run healthcare and such everyday things as opening a bank account," Usman Ahmad said in an opinion piece published in The Diplomat.


Explaining about Rohingyas living in Pakistan, he said an estimated to number 500,000 Rohingya families first settled in the port city of Karachi in 1962 after the coup d'etat which marked the beginning of authoritarian rule in the country and their numbers increased during the 1980s as the military regime of General Zia ul Haq brought them over to study in madrassas and participate in the Afghan jihad. -- ANI