PRC calls for repatriation of stranded Pakistanis

The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) held a symposium “Repatriation of stranded Pakistanis our national obligation” to commemorate the fall of Dhaka on Dec. 16, 1971. Pakistan lost its eastern wing in a war with India in 1971 resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.
Speaking at the symposium Hamid Islam Khan spoke about the difficult situation in which Pakistan Army, aided by patriotic forces, fought the Indian troops during the 1971 war.
He said that after the fall of Dhaka, the army was safely moved from India to Pakistan but those who supported the army in East Pakistan were abandoned by the Pakistani government to suffer humiliation and torture by Bengalis.
Many of them were killed and those who survived were interned in concentration camps where they have spent over four decades in inhuman condition. He said it is the obligation of the Pakistan government to bring them back to Pakistan without further delay.
Saudi scholar Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi said the fall of Dhaka is an unforgettable event of history. The victims of the tragedy are the quarter of a million patriotic Pakistanis who sided with the army and are now languishing in squalid camps across Bangladesh.
Al-Ghamdi said he had seen the pathetic condition of those stranded Pakistanis living in camps.
“It is the obligation of Pakistan to repatriate its citizens who want to come to Pakistan,” Al-Ghamdi said. He also criticized the establishment of a “War Crime Tribunal” to try those who sided with Pakistan during the 1971 war, which is not only targeting non-Bengalis but also Bengali-speaking personalities, some of them as old as 90 years.
“They are being persecuted without proper recourse to justice and their trial is based on revenge, which the international community will not accept. The Bangladesh government should not pursue such cases after the passage of 40 years in an unjust manner,” he said.
It did not allow international lawyers to witness the proceeding, which raises doubts about the fairness of the trial, he added.
Shahid Nayeem, president of Pakistan Journalists Forum, said had the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report been implemented, the culprits would have been punished and the crisis would have been resolved. He urged Pakistan government to set up a high-level committee for the resolution of the issue of stranded Pakistanis. Pakistan Peoples Community leader Shamsuddin Altaf said that the dismemberment of Pakistan was part of an international conspiracy against the largest Islamic country and the army or politicians should not only be blamed for it.
Another speaker Tariq Mehmood urged all political parties in Pakistan to include the issue of stranded Pakistanis in their agenda.
PRC convener Syed Ehsanul Haque said that as a nation we did not learn any lesson from the fall of Dhaka. He said it is regrettable that bona fide Pakistanis are denied Pakistani citizenship and have been abandoned to live in camps in a miserable condition.
He condemned the act of arson in Rangpur camp that killed five people and forced over 1,000 to live under the open sky in extreme cold weather. He also criticized the trial of hundreds of people (Bengalis and non-Bengalis) for conspiring against Bangladesh.
Community leaders Shaikh Mohammad Luqman, Mohammad Amanatullah and Mohammad Akram Agha also called for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis.
Members of the symposium adopted resolutions urging the government of Pakistan to restart the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis. They called on the Pakistani government to assign its high commissioner in Dhaka to look after the interests of 250,000 Pakistanis confined to camps across Bangladesh. It also urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to include the issue in its agenda.
The meeting condemned the burning of camps in Rangpur that forced hundreds of families to live under the open sky. It urged Bangladesh to stop harassing the leadership of stranded Pakistanis by creating a war tribunal to try them.
Poets Zamurrad Khan Saifi, Mohsin Alavi and Abdul Qayyum Waseq paid tribute to the martyrs of East Pakistan. The function was conducted by PRC Secretary-General Abdul Qayyum Waseq.