JEDDAH, 17 December 2007 — The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) met here on Friday night to mark the anniversary of the fall of Dhaka and remember the stranded Pakistanis still in Bangladeshi camps.
The meeting entitled “Repatriation of Stranded Pakistanis — Our National Obligation” urged Pakistan and Bangladesh to resolve the lingering issue through the repatriation and rehabilitation of the stranded people.
The meeting adopted a resolution calling on President Pervez Musharraf to reactivate the Rabita Trust and restart the repatriation process. It also urged Islamabad to consider the PRC proposal that envisages the repatriation on self-help basis. The resolution called on Islamabad to assign its high commissioner in Bangladesh to look after the stranded Pakistanis until they are repatriated. The PRC urged the Organization of the Islamic Conference to play its role in resolving the issue and include in its agenda the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis. The OIC has been asked to discuss the issue at its meeting scheduled to be held in Islamabad next year.
The meeting asked charitable organizations to help the stranded people and praised the Nawa-e-Waqt group of newspapers for establishing a fund for them. The meeting also urged the Pakistani government to press the UN, the United States and other countries to help resolve the issue of Kashmir.
Naseem-e-Sehar, who presided over the symposium, paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for Pakistan during the 1971 war and those who have suffering untold miseries in Bangladesh camps since then.
Mumtaz Alam in a message from Makkah said it was unfortunate that Pakistani politicians made pledges to resolve the issue but once they came to power they reneged on those promises.
Mohammad Jamil Rathore, general secretary of the Pakistan Journalists Forum, regretted that a quarter of a million Pakistanis had been living in camps for the past 36 years due to the apathy of successive Pakistani governments.
Farhan Siddiqui, general secretary of Muslim Welfare and Development Organization, spoke about the atrocities perpetrated on patriotic Pakistanis after the fall of Dhaka.
Maqboolur Rahman Abbasi said it was unfortunate that Pakistani parties had not learned any lesson from the Dhaka debacle. “We are divided even today,” he said. He urged political parties to include in their manifestos the stranded Pakistani issue.
Hamid Islam Khan, deputy convener of PRC in his brief speech reminded politicians and NGOs to play their roles in alleviating the miseries of stranded Pakistanis until they are repatriated to Pakistan.
PRC convener Ehsanul Haq said political parties should present solutions to national issues — Kashmir, stranded Pakistanis and Kalabagh Dam — in their manifestos.
Tariq Mahmood and Aziz Ahmed, secretary-general of Pakistan Engineers Society, also spoke. Syed Musarrat Khalil conducted the program.
Habib Siddiqui, Syed Mohsin Alavi and others recited poems to pay tribute to the martyrs of the 1971 war.
The meeting offered prayers for Abdul Bari Anjum and wife of Urdu News editor Zafar Iqbal, who died recently.
