JEDDAH, 20 August 2007 -— The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) celebrated Pakistan’s 60th independence anniversary at a function held at Jeddah’s Mehran restaurant last week.
Chief Guest Ghulam Nabi Butt, a representative of the Kashmiri community, praised the council for organizing functions during all national events and raising the issues of Kashmir and stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh.
Butt said that the dream of Pakistan was realized through tremendous sacrifices and it is now the duty of the country’s leaders to work for Pakistan’s stability and development.
Speaking about the plight of stranded Pakistanis, Butt made an appeal to Islamabad to take measures for their repatriation.
Gulab Khan, another speaker, said, “We should analyze what we have done for our country in the past 60 years. We must learn lessons from the 1971 debacle and bring stranded Pakistanis back.”
Mohammad Jamil Rathore, secretary general of the Pakistan Journalists Forum, said, “Just praising the founding leaders is not enough, we must adhere to the commitment made during the Pakistan movement to make it a truly Islamic welfare state.”
Azeez Ahmed talked about the need for reforms in Pakistan’s electoral system to allow able people to get elected.
PRC Convener Ehsanul Haque thanked all participants for making the function a memorable one.
He also paid tribute to Allama Iqbal and Quaed-e-Azam.
“We should today commit ourselves to project issues of Kashmiris and stranded Pakistanis to alleviate their miseries and secure their right to join Pakistan,” he said.
Renowned poets Habib Siddiqui, Athar Nafees Abbasi, Naseem Sehar, Mohsin Alavi, Tahir Jameel, Aftab Turrabi, Zamurrad Khan Saifi, Gule Anwar and Mohammad Asad Khan read poetry on subjects relating to Pakistan, Kashmir and stranded Pakistanis.
The program was conducted by PRC General Secretary Naseem Sehar.
