JEDDAH: Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) celebrated Pakistan Day and passed several resolutions at a meeting held on Sunday.
The meeting passed a resolution congratulating Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on his reinstatement as the chief justice of Pakistan.
“We are thankful to our President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for this. We also appreciate Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Nawaz Sharif and other leaders for respecting the sentiments of the people and reinstating the chief justice,” the resolution said.
“We appreciate Chief Justice’s concern for the missing people in Pakistan. May we ask him to take notice of the non-missing Pakistanis who are in captivity in Bangladeshi camps for the last 37 years, and how the succeeding governments of that country have denied them their right to return to their home country.
Several petitions filed by the late M.D. Tahir at the Lahore High Court have been pending due to government apathy. Even Rabita Trust, established in 1988 for this purpose was frozen in 2001, hence there is no organization to take care of them,” the resolution said and appealed to the chief justice to consider their plight on priority. Another resolution urged Zardari to reactivate the Rabita Trust and restart the process of repatriation and rehabilitation of the stranded Pakistanis.
The meeting lauded the efforts of Majeed Nizami for the establishment of Nawai Waqt fund for alleviating miseries of stranded Pakistanis. This fund has sent over 15 million Pakistani rupees since 2003.
Syed Anwer Hussain, staff officer to minister at the Pakistani Consulate in his presidential address urged all Pakistanis to adhere to the message of Quaid-e-Azam and forge unity, faith and discipline to realize the goals set for the country. Mohammad Jamil Rathore, general secretary of Pakistan Journalists Forum, Mohammad Ashfaq Badayouni, Tariq Mahmood, Azeez Ahmed, Ateequr Rahman of Mohibban, Nawaz Janjua of Pakistan Welfare Society and PRC Convener Ehsanul Haque were among those who spoke.
Other speakers were Rahsheed Chishti of Pak Sraiki Forum, Neaz Ahmed of Pakistan Writers Forum and Syed Musarrat Khalil who conducted the proceedings. Poets Tahir Jameel, Syed Mohsin Alavi, Abdul Qayyum Waseq, Ali Mukhtar, Mohammad Nawaz Janjua, Zamurrad Khan Saifi and Gule Anwar presented their poems to mark the occasion.
