Islamabad: The United States has ordered 103 Pakistanis to leave the country for committing immigration violations and criminal offences.

The Pakistanis to be deported included the immigration violators, as well as those arrested on various criminal charges, US officials were quoted as saying by Pakistani daily 'Dawn' on March 13.

The majority of the deportees stayed in the US without valid visa or work permit, but there are also others who were arrested for possessing drugs, soliciting prostitutes and other similar offences, they said.

The deportees will be sent to Pakistan by a chartered flight, the officials said.

Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, hundreds of Pakistanis have been deported, initially on commercial flights, but later the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) decided to charter planes for deportation when commercial airlines refused to carry them due to security threat to other passengers, the daily said.

The US in the recent months included Pakistan in the list of 24 countries whose citizens living in America were asked to register themselves under the INS.

PTI