JEDDAH, 13 September 2005 — The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) organized the “Defense Day of Pakistan” recently to pay tributes to those who sacrificed their lives to protect the integrity and solidarity of the country.
“The day is observed every year on Sept. 6 when on this day in 1965 India made a surprise attack,” said PRC Convener Ehsanul Haque. Poet, writer and scholar Dr. Monawar Hashmi presided.
“Quaid-e-Azam’s principle of unity, faith and discipline was the guiding spirit in the 1965 war. It was also the source of inspiration for our brave soldiers who fought gallantly,” Haque said, adding that the same nation and people failed to protect the country’s integrity and sovereignty in the 1971 war due to unwise strategies of the then ruler and politicians.
The loss of war also created one big unresolved issue. A quarter million Pakistanis got stranded in Bangladesh camps and they still live there in miserable conditions. They are waiting for their repatriation promised in 1988 under the Rabita Trust established by the late President Ziaul Haque.
“It’s high time that President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz give the issue due priority and settle them in their home country,” he said.
Latifur Rahman, Maqboolur Rahman Abbasi, Mohammad Jamil Rathore of Pakistan Journalists Forum, Habib Siddiqui, Abu Farhan Siddiqui, Hamid Islam Khan, Mohsin Alavi, Abdul Qayyum Waseq, Zamurrad Khan Saifi, and Qari Abdul Majeed paid tributes to the martyrs of the 1965 war and spoke in support of the PRC’s efforts to plead with the Pakistani government to find a solution to the stranded Pakistanis and the Kashmir issue at the earliest.