It’s time to resolve stranded Pakistanis’ issue

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has won the election with a heavy mandate and is now in a position to steer Pakistan out of many crises that the country has been facing due to wrong policies of the previous governments. Among the issues that Sharif needs to address is the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis. These hapless Pakistanis have been languishing in Bangladesh camps for over four decades. During his previous tenure Nawaz Sharif had initiated the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis and in 1993, thousands of housing units were built for the rehabilitation of those who were brought back to the country.
While we congratulate Mamnoon Hussain on being elected as the 12th president of Pakistan and Mian Nawaz Sharif on becoming prime minister for a record third time, the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC), an organization striving for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis, hopes that Sharif’s government will address this longstanding issue and start the repatriation of the stranded people.
Things came to a standstill with the unceremonious exit of Sharif government that was followed by the freezing of the Rabita Trust in 2001 and that stopped the whole process of repatriation.
We appeal to Nawaz Sharif to reactivate the Rabita Trust and restart the process of repatriation of stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh and their rehabilitation in Pakistan. The PRC proposal of “settlement of stranded Pakistanis on self-finance basis" can resolve the funding issue.
Bangladesh should be included in the Trust because it can play a major role in solving the issue. Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka should be assigned to take care of the quarter of a million Pakistanis living in squalid camps there.
The Rabita Trust was set up by late President Zia-ul-Haq for the repatriation of these people. Later, Sharif had allocated land in Punjab in 1988 and took special initiative to have hundreds of stranded Pakistanis settled in houses in Okara especially built for the purpose.
We also welcome the assurance given by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently about solving the issue.
Shahbaz recently met a delegation led by Haroon-ur-Rasheed, assistant secretary-general of the Pakistan Repatriation Council, in Lahore and assured them that the issue of stranded Pakistanis would be resolved soon.
We hope that Sharif government will take urgent steps to resolve this issue.
Syed Ehsanul Haq
Convener, PRC, Jeddah

Mugabe is no Mandela!
It is true that both are hailed as African liberation heroes and both galvanized their countries to throw off the shackles of white minority rule but one has to accept that Mugabe is no Mandela. While South Africa’s Nelson Mandela reconciled with those who oppressed the black majority and saved the country’s economy from the anticipated decline but Mugabe did the opposite and ruined the country, which was once popularly known as the “bread basket” of Africa. Now it remains as just an empty basket with no bread in it! Mandela after one year in office as president he left it for others and kept serving the people from behind the scene. If he only desired to hold on to office, the South Africans would have kept on electing him with landslide majority every time. Mugabe, just few years younger to Mandela, has been in power for more than three decades now and we learn once again that his party has been “re-elected” for another term, winning a two third majority in the house. Please don’t ask me how free and fair this election was this time or for that matter at any time before! All what I can tell those who expect the impossible from this power-hungry man from Zimbabwe is that Mugabe is no Mandela.
S.H. Moulana
Riyadh
Terror threat
It is difficult to believe what US Secretary of State John Kerry said during his recent visit to Pakistan. While talking to the media, he claimed the US has almost eliminated terror threat from Pakistan’s tribal areas and therefore drone strikes could end soon. We don’t know whether he was serious or uninformed to that extent while making such an irresponsible statement.
It is naive to claim that threat from the militant groups holed up in tribal areas and elsewhere in Pakistan has subsided. On the contrary it has increased many folds. The threat is not only very much there, but has also changed into a monster. In Pakistan it’s not only the tribal areas which are infected and infested with terrorists, but increasing number of daring attacks on security forces elsewhere in Pakistan, frequent bold jailbreaks, sectarian-based terror attacks to eliminate opponents, have forced the law-enforcing agencies to retreat. Even the authorities are unable to apprehend, try and sentence high-profile terrorists.
One would wish John Kerry to get the real picture of the threat not only in tribal areas but the entire country.
Masood Khan
Jubail