Justice Ayesha A. Malik of the Supreme Court said on Friday that Pakistan was obligated to abide by the UN conventions safeguarding the rights of refugees. She made these comments when the decision to expel unlawful Afghan nationals by the caretaker administration was being challenged in a plea for restraining orders before the three-member bench of the supreme court. Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood are also on the bench. The majority of the unlawful foreign nationals being deported are Afghans, and the government launched a statewide drive to deport them in November. The judgement had drawn condemnation from Afghanistan as well as a number of other places, but the guardians remained steadfast in their belief that no one ethnic group was the target of the action.