PRC hopeful new PM will solve issue of stranded Pakistanis

Dr. Francis Lamand, president of Islam and West, and recipient of Pakistan’s prestigious Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, hopes the issue of stranded Pakistanis will be resolved through the offices of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Speaking at a reception organized by the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) to honor him, Lamand said, “I am trying to secure appointment with Sharif to meet and convince him to relaunch the repatriation process, which he had done in the past. I am very optimistic that through him, the issue will be resolved soon.”
Lamand, who was decorated with Pakistan’s top civilian award on March 23 in Islamabad, said that as a humanist and international lawyer, he felt obligated to help PRC in its mission to repatriate stranded Pakistanis and was glad to have supported it for over two decades.
He said he met former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2004, Prime Minister Sharif in Jeddah in 2006 and President Asif Zardari on March 23, 2013. In 2005, he had met the director of UNHCR in Geneva along with Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef to seek refugee status for stranded Pakistanis.
Prominent Pakistani expatriates, including PRC convener Ehsanul Haque, paid tribute to Lamand for his services to Pakistan and its cause.
Azeez Ahmed, general secretary of Pakistan Engineers Society, said Lamand deserved praise for projecting the issue of stranded Pakistanis and hoped that it would be resolved soon.
Tariq Mahmood, community leader, praised Lamand for projecting Allama Iqbal’s philosophy in the West and that he deserved the award of Tamgha-i- Imtiaz.
Hamid Islam Khan, Shaikh Mohammad Luqman, Shamsuddin Altaf and Mohammad Amanatullah also praised Lamand and justified the conferment of the award on him.
Haque thanked him and all guests for joining the occasion.
He highlighted the role of Lamand in projecting Islamic values in the West through his Islam and West project.
He said Lamand’s role in advocating PRC’s mission of repatriation of stranded Pakistanis must be lauded.
“The prayers of oppressed Pakistanis has been answered,” he said, adding that with Sharif at the helm, his commitment to repatriate and rehabilitate stranded Pakistanis on priority will be fulfilled.
The function resolved to urge Sharif to reactivate the Rabita Trust (frozen by Gen. Musharraf in October 2001) and to restart the process of repatriation and rehabilitation, which was halted in 1993. To overcome the paucity of fund, it suggested implementing PRC's proposal to settle the issue of stranded Pakistanis on a self-finance basis. Bangladesh should also play its role in solving the issue, he said. It demanded that the Pakistani High Commission at Dhaka should be assigned to take care of the food, health, life and security of a quarter of a million Pakistanis there and that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should include the issue of settlement of stranded Pakistanis on its agenda.
The PRC urged Altaf Husain’s MQM, Jamat-e-Islami’s charitable wings, Ansar Burney Trust, Eidhi Trust and other charitable organizations to extend their services to stranded Pakistanis in alleviating their hardship.
Haque praised Majeed Nizami for creating the Nawa-i-Waqt Fund for stranded Pakistanis, which sent them millions of rupees. It advised the Pakistan government to use the UN, the US and other countries’ influence on India to conduct plebiscite in Kashmir according to the will of its people. Kashmiri leadership must be included in the negotiation team of India and Pakistan, it said.
The program, conducted by Abdul Qayyum Wasiq, PRC secretary-general, began with a recitation from the Holy Qur’an by Syed Shehabuddin, followed by a “naat” by Sher Afzal.