Expats remember stranded Pakistanis on Kashmir Day

Kashmir Solidarity Day is being observed in Jeddah by several groups of Pakistan origin as a token of expression of solidarity with the Kashmiri people who are struggling for their freedom from the Indian rule.
The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) marked the day by holding a quiet but solemn function here on Monday, which was well attended by a motley group of academicians, scholars, poets and social activists.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was represented at the function by a Saudi intellectual, Dr. Abdulwahab Noorwaly, the ex-secretary of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, who was the function’s chief guest.
Dr. Noorwaly called for individual efforts instead of just waiting for the world community to play its part.
“The UN Resolutions are there for the last 60 years, and political efforts are being made too, but the issue still remains unresolved, uncompromised despite the fact that times are changing fast,” Dr. Noorwaly said.
“We see a huge change taking place in countries from Tunisia to Syria. People under subjugation of one nature or the other are rising up for their dignity and a due place in the society, but people of Kashmir are still stuck in the time warp of a controversial decision that had taken place in 1947.”
Dr. Noorwaly, who is also the chairman of a UK-based humanitarian organization, observed that since Kashmiris too are striving for a dignified life, we should contribute our individual efforts by means of donations, sparing our time and labor to at least reach out to them.
Apart from freedom, they immediately need education, medical aid and food, he noted.
Dr. Noorwaly also took the occasion to remind Pakistan of those helpless citizens who have been left behind in Bangladesh to fend for themselves, and called for taking care of them too. He praised PRC and its convener Syed Ehsanul Haque for taking initiative to solve this pestering problem.
Pakistan observes the Kashmir Solidarity Day — a call originally given by late Qazi Hussain Ahmad of Jamaat-e-Islami — on Feb. 5 each year since 1990, shortly after the armed uprising in the state had begun.
PRC convener Ehsanul Haque stressed that Pakistan must take steps to bring back the stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh to give any meaning to the Two-Nation Theory, and which, he said, has been at the core of the foundation of Pakistan.
PRC adopted resolution calling on the world community to pressurize India to hold plebiscite in Indian-administered Kashmir under the auspices of the United Nations and asked the government of Pakistan to reactivate Rabita Trust, which was frozen during former Pakistan President Ziaul Haque’s regime.
Participants pledged to strengthen the Two-Nation Theory and came out with several suggestions to solve the issue of the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh, one of which was to make efforts to put the issue in the manifestoes of all the political parties facing elections this year.
Those prominent faces of the Pakistan expatriates in Jeddah who spoke on the occasion included Syed Riaz Bukhari, president Pakistan People’s Community; Qari Irshadul Haque, vice chairman Jammu and Kashmir Community; Mohammad Jameel Rathore, general secretary Pakistan Journalist Forum; Choudhry Riaz Gumman, president Pak-Saudi Friendship Society; and Sardar Rahmat Khan of Kashmir Committee. PRC activists Hamid Islam Khan, Shamsuddin Altaf, Syed Shehabuddin elaborated PRC’s efforts in taking up the matter related to people of Kashmir as well as that of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh.