DHAKA, 6 June — A delegation of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) led by its chief patron, Nasim Khan, called on visiting Saudi leader Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef at his hotel suite yesterday. Mir Qasim Ali, director, Rabita Trust, was present on the occasion. Nasim Khan was accompanied by Muhammad Shawkat Ali, general secretary of SPGRC and others.
Khan apprised Dr. Naseef, a former vice president of Shoura Council of Saudi Arabia, of the problems the stranded Pakistanis were facing. He also informed Naseef about the demolition of shanties in Geneva Camp in Dhaka.
He said the Dhaka City Corporation recently razed some 84 shops, houses and schools of stranded Pakistanis at Geneva Camp and evicted the inmates in order to build a market complex there. He said that the demolition was carried out without any prior notice. Khan said the action was stopped by a High Court order and efforts were still being made to flout the court’s order and build the municipal market there.
Khan told Naseef how the children of the stranded Pakistanis were being deprived of education and health care facilities. He also dwelt on the miseries the stranded people were undergoing in the squalid camps.
Khan requested Naseef to help arrange an emergency meeting between Bangladesh and Pakistan in order to resolve the repatriation issue. He also pleaded for funds for the reconstruction of damaged camps and for running schools.
Naseef gave a patient hearing and said that he would try his best to solve the problems of stranded Pakistanis. He told the delegation that he would talk to some Bangladesh leaders to stop of demolition of camps. Naseef said that the Rabita Trust, formed exclusively for rehabilitating stranded Pakistanis, was in constant touch with Pakistani rulers but frequent changes in government delayed the process. He said that Pakistan had already agreed to take back its citizens. He assured the delegation that he would put in his best efforts for an early resolution of the issue.
