Speakers at a symposium on "Repatriation of Stranded Pakistanis on Self-finance Basis" organized by PRC earlier this week called for activating Rabita Trust for the purpose of repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis.

A resolution adopted at the meeting urged that Bangladesh be included in the trust so it plays a role in providing facilities to the stranded Pakistanis who wish to continue to live in that country. For those who wish to return to Pakistan, the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka should issue passports to the male members of 37,000 stranded families and President Asif Ali Zardari should request Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to issue them work visas. And once they start working in Saudi Arabia, they should lease the houses built by Rabita Trust in Punjab as per the PRC's original plan.

The trust should seek soft loans from the Islamic Development Bank and other financial institutions to build 37,000 houses and allow them to lease on a 15-year interest free loan. The cost of houses should be reduced from $5,000 as originally planned to $2,500. They should be similar to the houses built in Surjani town for poor families.

Musarrat Khalil said this proposal was sent on behalf of PRC to every succeeding Pakistani president and prime minister since March 1998 but no government has yet responded to it.

Naseem Sehar said that if the Pakistani government gave little attention to the issue, the quarter million patriotic Pakistanis could be settled with the help of Rabita Trust and implementation of the PRC proposal. He assured the meeting that he would continue his mission to highlight the issue in Pakistan.

PRC Convener Syed Ehsanul Haque, Irfan Hashmi, vice president of Urdu Markaz, Syed Neaz Ahmed, president of Pakistan Writers Forum, and community leaders Gulab Khan, Shaikh Luqman, Ilyas Meher, Mohammad Ashfaque Badaouni, Hamid Islam Khan, Mohammad Javed Khan, Syed Shahabduddin also highlighted the plight of the stranded Pakistanis. Poets Syed Mohsin Alavi, Abdul Qayyum Waseq, Aftab Turabi, Zamurrad Khan Saifi, Syed Mahtab Ahmed and Gule Anwar read out poems in praise of Naseem Sehar who has since returned to Pakistan for good after a stay of several years here.