JEDDAH, 18 May 2005 — The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) has appealed to the government of Bangladesh to restore the supply of wheat to the stranded Pakistanis living in camps across the country.
The Bangladesh government stopped wheat distribution among stranded Pakistani families recently citing paucity of funds.
The PRC made the appeal through a resolution passed at an emergency meeting of its executive body held here recently. The meeting was called to review the situation in the wake of a Bangladesh government decision to disconnect electricity and other utilities to the camps.
Bangladesh claims that over 443 million takas had been spent on providing utility services to the stranded Pakistanis living in camps. It says the government can save millions of takas if the electricity supply was stopped.
“Three kilograms of wheat given to each family was stopped at the beginning of 2005 due to scarcity of fund. It’s tragic that none of the Pakistani charitable organizations including Edhi Trust, welfare wings of MQM, Jamaat-e Islami, Muslim League, Tehrik-e Insaf and Ansar Burney Trust, have bothered to help alleviate the miseries of the quarter of a million patriotic Pakistanis languishing in 66 camps in Bangladesh for the past 34 years,” the PRC resolution said.
A few international organizations including ICRC and some Christian missionaries had extended help soon after the fall of Dhaka but they stopped the assistance later on.
The Rabita Trust, established in 1988 by Pakistan’s late President Zia-ul-Haq with the financial assistance from the Muslim World League, for the repatriation and resettlement of the stranded Pakistanis was deactivated in October 2001 for various reasons including embezzlement charges. However, the auditors cleared the Rabita Trust of the charges in 2003, but it has not yet been activated. The freezing of the trust’s funds retarded the progress on the issue.
The PRC, in its resolutions, again urged Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to reactivate the Rabita Trust and start the process of repatriation and rehabilitation of the stranded Pakistanis without delay.
Those attending the meeting included Latifur Rahman, Aslam Tanweer, Naseem Sehar, Abdul Qayyum Waseq, Mahtab Ahmed, Ariz Munawar, Mohammad Laique, Asad Khan, Jamil Rathore, Mohammad Ateeq, Qazi Pervez, Farhan Siddiqui, and Hamid Islam Khan.
