PRC praises Supreme Court decision on stranded Pakistanis

The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) hailed the recent Pakistan Supreme Court decision that accepted the Dhaka-based Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) petition, which was pending since 2009.
Presiding over a function held in Jeddah, PRC Vice President Naseem Sehar, who is based in Islamabad, praised the court for “boldly accepting” the petition, submitted in 2009.
The petition, he noted, had urged the federal government to take steps for the repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh.
Sehar reposed faith in the current government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for taking action in “bringing our compatriots back to our country.”
He said, “This is our national and religious obligation to secure rights of a quarter million “patriotic Pakistanis languishing in Bangladesh for over four decades.”
Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi, a former Saudi diplomat, extolled PRC’s role in highlighting the plight of those hapless Pakistanis, who, he said, were forced to move to camps in Dhaka, where “they have spent more than 43 years which is very tragic.”
Welcoming the court decision, Al-Ghamdi hoped the stranded Pakistanis would get a long awaited justice and will be finally settled in Pakistan.
PRC Convener Ehsanul Haque said they were optimistic the Supreme Court will extend justice to the Pakistanis and they will get their denied rights of citizenship.
He appealed to Islamabad to create a new Trust (in replacement of Rabita Trust frozen in October 2001) which should take necessary measures to restart the process of repatriation and rehabilitation which was stopped in his last tenure 1993 and 1997.
He said Dr. Abdullah Omar Al-Nasseef, the president, World Muslim Congress, has sought an appointment with Sharif to discuss ways for solving the issue.
The delegation may include Dr. Francis Lamand from Paris, Dr. Al-Ghamdi and Syed Ehteshamuddin Arshad, the PRC chairman.
Those who spoke on the occasion and hoped for an early verdict in this regard included Syed Musarrat Khalil of Pakistan Journalists Forum, Shamsuddin Altaf of Pakistan People Community, Azeez Ahmed, secretary general, Pakistan Engineers Society.