JEDDAH, 9 February 2004 — Pakistanis and people in Azad Kashmir observe Feb. 5 as Kashmir Day every year. This year on that date, the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) met here to express its solidarity with Kashmiris.
A number of speakers attributed the thaw in India-Pakistan relations to the strong and positive policies of President Pervez Musharraf. They were heartened that India had accepted Kashmir as the core issue in the two countries’ relations.
There was widespread feeling that the president should try to resolve the issue of the quarter of a million Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh since 1971. One speaker criticized Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s statement that those born after 1971 to Pakistani families in Bangladesh would not be accepted as Pakistanis.
Ehsanul Haque, the PRC convener, praised Musharraf’s policy on Kashmir and said that negotiations should continue until a breakthrough was achieved.
He urged the president to consider the PRC proposal to solve the issue of stranded Pakistanis on a” self- financing basis “ which envisages employment to individuals prior to repatriation of stranded families from Bangladesh.
