Francis Lamand, president of Islam and the West, a nonprofit organization based in Paris, in his address congratulated Pakistanis on the great achievement of independence from British rule in 1947. He said that he was a close friend of Pakistan and great admirer of Allama Iqbal, whom he considers the greatest poet and philosopher of the century.
Lamand said he organized a seminar on Iqbal in Córdoba, Spain, in 1992. He extended his commitment to PRC in solving the issue of stranded Pakistanis and recalled his meeting with Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, among others.
He also met the head of UNHCR in Geneva to pursue the issue of granting refugee status to the thousands of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh so that their basic needs can be met.
"I also met the Bangladesh High Commissioner in Islamabad to seek his country's assistance in alleviating the miseries of the stranded Pakistanis in various camps," he said.
Chief guest Abdul Wahab Noor Wali, former secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), said the creation of Pakistan was an identity of Muslim Ummah, since it was established on the ideology of Islam. He wanted the people and rulers of Pakistan to work together and put the country on track, and pursue the objective for which the country was created in 1947.
He said that the four-decade-old issue of stranded Pakistanis between the two Muslim countries was tragic. He said that organizations like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League should take measures to end the plight of the Pakistanis languishing in Bangladesh camps.
Mohammad Jamil Rathore, general secretary of Pakistan's Journalists Forum, said that strong and patriotic leadership would be able to solve the issues faced by the nation.
Community leaders Hamid Islam Khan, Gulab Khan, Tariq Mahmood and Sheikh Mohammad Luqman also spoke on the occasion. Convener Ehsanul Haque thanked Lamand and Abdul Wahab Noor Wali for extending their support to the issue of stranded Pakistanis. He said that the quarter million Pakistanis were suffering in the camps due to their patriotism and loyalty to the state and "it's our obligation to see that that they regain their Pakistani citizenship."
The meeting also passed a resolution for finding speedy solutions to the stranded Pakistanis and to the Kashmir issue.
