PRC pins hope on Sharif govt to bring back stranded Pakistanis

The fall of Dhaka in 1971 that partitioned Pakistan has left an unending pain in the psyche of Pakistani nation. The trauma may be behind, but the tragic dregs of those painful events drag on even after 43 years of the unfortunate war.
While the “prisoners of war were brought home, those who stood with the Pakistan Army then to defend Pakistan were left behind to languish in camps for over 43 years, which is very sad,” said Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi here at a function to mark the fall of Dhaka.
Al-Ghamdi is a former diplomat who has been watching “Pakistan’s political situation very closely.” He observed that the quarter million patriotic Pakistanis are forgotten and ignored by the countery which they tried to defend along with their army against the joint might of India and Bangladesh’s Mukti Bahini.
The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) in Jeddah that organized the function urged the Nawaz Sharif government to urgently facilitate the repatriation of those Pakistani compatriots who are living in a very pathetic condition in several filthy camps in Dhaka.
PRC Convener Ehsanul Haque informed that a committee to be headed by Dr. Abdullah Omar Al-Nasseef, and which includes Dr. Francis Lamand and Dr. Ghamdi as members, would be seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Sharif soon to discuss an action plan for solving the issue of stranded Pakistanis.
“At the moment a date cannot be given until it is confirmed by the prime minister,” he said.
The PRC-held symposium discussed, “Repatriation of stranded Pakistanis: Our national obligation,” which drew participation of prominent Pakistanis including Choudhry Riaz Ghumman of Kashmir Committee, Tayyab Moosani of Pakistan Memon Association, Aftab Hussain Altaf of WAMY, Shamsuddin Altaf of Pakistan Peoples Community, Syed Mohsin Alavi, Syed Ghazanfar Hassan and Owais Akram of Engineers Welfare Forum, poets and writer Mohammad Amanatullah, Syed Raza Hashmi.
Community leader Mohammad Ashfaque Badayouni and a prominent Jeddah businessman, Sheikh Mohammad Luqman, also spoke on the occasion.
Jeddah poets like Syed Mohsin Alavi, Abdul Qayyum Wasiq and Zamurrad Khan Saifi, presented poems paying warm tributes to the martyrs of then East Pakistan and the sacrifices made by the stranded Pakistanis.
PRC General-Secretary Wasiq conducted the program while Qari Abdul Majeed began the function with the recitation of verses from the Holy Qur’an.