Pakistani minister defends decision to expel Afghans

Pakistan's foreign minister defended on Thursday an order that all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghans, must leave, saying no other country allows illegal immigrants and the decision is in line with international practice. The order, announced on Tuesday and with a Nov. 1 deadline for people to go, has frayed relations with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who said the threat to force out Afghan migrants was "unacceptable". "No country allows illegal people to live in their country， whether it is Europe，whether it is countries in Asia, in our neighbourhood," the minister in a caretaker Pakistani government, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told Hong Kong's Phoenix TV in an interview on the sidelines of a forum in Tibet.