They have endured untold hardships, lived in sub-human conditions in squalid camps over three decades and have seen most of their loved ones die during these years. They are the quarter of a million Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh. These long-time refugees, most of whom have never seen the country they call home, feel they are an abandoned people. The stranded Pakistanis (and their children) have been in internment camps for having backed the Pakistani Army during the Bengali war for independence from Pakistan.
Soon after the birth of Bangladesh, the government in Dhaka acted swiftly and brought back about 300,000 Bengalis who were living in West Pakistan and who voluntarily returned. Many of those who had sided with the Pakistan Army during the India-Pakistan war in 1971 have died. Their children, born in these camps, are hostage to the fate of geopolitics. They are paying the price for a crime they never committed.
The prisoners formed an organization — Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) — led by Naseem Khan. Khan tried to keep the issue alive for over three decades and carried on his struggle for the repatriation of the stranded people. He died on Aug. 28 from a heart attack in Bangladesh without realizing his dream of going to his homeland.
Khan met the late President Ziaul Haque in 1984 when the president promised to repatriate them soon. Though he could not fulfill the promise, he established the Rabita Trust in July 1988 with financial assistance of Muslim World League (MWL) to arrange repatriation and rehabilitation in Punjab.
The late Punjab Chief Minister Ghulam Haider Wyne had allocated land for their repatriation. Benazir Bhutto shelved the plan following the death of Ziaul Haq in a plane crash a month later.
In 1993, ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took the initiative and repatriated 365 persons and settled them in Mian Channu where the trust had built houses for the homecoming refugees. However, thousands of houses have remained vacant since 1993 while successive governments were unwilling to take further action.
Bangladesh and Pakistan have never approached the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to secure subsistence allowance for the stranded people. When UNHCR commissioner for Islam and the West, Francis Lamand, asked UNHCR authorities to grant the stranded Pakistanis refugee status, he was told that the request should formally come either from Bangladesh or Pakistan.
Lamand submitted to President Musharraf the repatriation proposal during a banquet hosted by the French Foreign Ministry in July 2003. In January 2003, Lamand met the then Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar in Islamabad to discuss the issue. A Pakistan Repatriation Council delegation also met the secretary general of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) and sought their help for the stranded Pakistanis. Pledges of support were made, but nothing has ever happened.
It is an irony that our political leaders make promises before elections but renege on them as soon as they are elected.
Former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali too made promises in 1993, but when he became prime minister in 2003 he declared that those born in Bangladesh after 1971 should settle there. Many more leaders out of political expediency reneged on their promises. But at the same time there are many who continue to support the cause and extend help to the stranded people.
The Nawai Waqt newspaper group led by Majeed Nizami has been doing a commendable job projecting the issue in its true perspective. The group has instituted a special fund for the stranded Pakistanis that till last year generated over 5 million rupees. The money was sent to Bangladesh for helping stranded Pakistani families. Organizations outside Pakistan have been more active in extending help. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) ships five to ten thousands slaughtered sheep after Haj every year for the stranded Pakistanis. Many other organizations worldwide have been providing financial help to the stranded Pakistanis.
During the visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Dhaka this November, the stranded Pakistanis wanted to meet him. But after seeing the muted response, they went on hunger strike. Federal Minister Babar Khan Ghouri met them and convinced them to end the hunger strike saying the government would consider the issue sympathetically. It is a good omen and let’s hope things will move in the right direction.
