News stories by Ashfaq Yusufzai, page 21

Afghan voters just went to national parliamentary elections, but refugees from that country here in neighbouring Pakistan could only rue the fact that they have been left out of this vote.

When they are not looking forlornly over what used to be their homes or trying to find help for relatives who have fallen ill, many Afghan refugees chase after vehicles that pass through the Great Trunk Road connecting Peshawar to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

Good news has become harder to come by these days in Afghanistan, especially as the war-ravaged country gears up for the parliamentary election scheduled on Sep. 18.

Turn schools into hate-free zones, and achieving peace in violence-wracked Pakistan may not be far behind.

'We swam the whole day to get hold of the elderly and women swept away by floodwaters,' recalled 27-year-old Shahid Ali of Charsadda district, one of the areas in north-western Pakistan badly hit by devastating monsoon rains.

The threats against officials and ordinary people alike have not stopped, with yet another suicide bomber sowing terror in the district’s main town just on Jul. 15.

The number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan who will return to their homeland this year is expected to be double the 2009 figure, but it’s not only a longing for their native soil that is fuelling the Afghans’ departure.

Unable to afford treatment for his disease, Azizur Rehman, 29, has been suffering from hepatitis C for the past one year. 'My elder sister died of the same killer ailment one year ago for lack of treatment,' he laments.

Abdul Wahid’s wife had been unwell for two years, showing symptoms of a chronic infectious disease such as prolonged coughing, before she finally decided to see a doctor.

'I don’t feel any fear. My parents do. They instruct me almost every day to stay away from crowded places,' said Afaq Ali, a Grade 1 student in this capital city of the militancy-wracked Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.