The meeting was held in Jeddah over the weekend and adopted resolutions calling on the government of Pakistan to reactivate the Rabita Trust and repatriate Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh.
It urged Islamabad to instruct Pakistan's High Commissioner in Dhaka to look after stranded Pakistanis until their repatriation. The meeting also asked Dhaka and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to help resolve the issue.
Azeez Ahmed, secretary-general of the Pakistan Engineers Society, said the fall of Dhaka was a great tragedy in our history and that Pakistanis have not learned any lessons from it and are divided into groups that serve the vested interests of others. He added that Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh should have been given their right to return a long time ago and urged President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to arrange their repatriation and rehabilitation to Pakistan.
Mohammad Jamil Rathore, general secretary of the Pakistan Journalists Forum, said abandoning a quarter of a million patriotic Pakistanis is a gross injustice. He demanded the reactivation of the Rabita Trust and the implementation of the PRC proposal that envisages their repatriation on a self-help basis.
Ashfaque Badaouni said the debacle of East Pakistan was a national disaster. The cruelest aspect of the event was that Pakistanis who fought for the integrity and solidarity of Pakistan were left to live in squalid camps.
PRC Convener Syed Ehsanul Haque said it was ironic that while Pakistanis were abandoned by Islamabad to live in Bangladesh, over a million Bengalis live in Karachi as Pakistani citizens. He asked the governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Gulab Khan and Syed Shahabuddin also spoke on the occasion. Renowned poets Naseem Sehar, Syed Mohsin Alavi, Abdul Qayyum Waseq and Gul-e-Anwar recited poems in tribute to those killed in the 1971 war.
