MAHMUD Khan, Presidium of Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC), the largest organization representing the stranded Pakistanis living in camps in Bangladesh, on a recent Umrah visit to the Kingdom, said that schools and clinics that were running since 1978 under the Muslim World League (MWL) and its subsidiary, International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), were closed down in 2007 due to the freezing of bank accounts in Bangladesh. “We urge Dr Abdullah Bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki to intervene in order to restore the schools and clinics and to financially assist the teachers who have been unpaid for the past 26 months. This is adding to their miseries and the only hope of education for the children of stranded Pakistanis has diminished,” said Khan, who is the son of Naseem Khan, the long-time leader of the stranded Pakistanis and founder of SPGRC in 1973. Khan said that if Pakistan does not act soon, more Pakistanis will be forced to accept a Bangladeshi citizenship. “It may be that about 20 percent of the stranded Pakistanis now would like to settle in Bangladesh, provided they are given a full-fledged citizenship status and that the Rabita Trust finances their housing in Dhaka and not in Punjab (Pakistan),” he said. Khan praised Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah, for the Kingdom's ‘help and support', along with the various organizations based in the Kingdom, such as, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), MWL, IIRO, etc. He also praised Dr Ahmed Mohammad Ali, IDB President, for the bank's initiative of annually sending sacrificial meat for the stranded Pakistanis, the quantity of which has been increased to 10,000 sacrificial goat carcasses that were distributed this year. Khan also had words of praise for Majeed Nizami, member of Rabita Trust and editor-in-chief of Nawai Waqt, for establishing the Nawai Waqt Fund in 2003, and his other services, such as, assisting the purchase of rickshaws for young men, sewing machines for women, etc. “Some of the high quality cotton (mulmul) is handmade and is one of the important exports of Bangladesh,” he said. Khan said a few other organizations, such as, the OBAT Helpers in the US, Saudi-based MWO, and others are doing a lot for the cause of the stranded Pakistanis in coordination with the SPGRC. In 1971, the then Pakistani President Yahiya Khan's denial to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who won 55 percent of the National Assembly seats due to the cancellation of the Assembly's session of March 2 that year in Dhaka, initiated the separatist movement. The Bangladeshi flag was hoisted in East Pakistan, with the exception of the colonies of Urdu-speaking Pakistanis and army cantonment, which hoisted the Pakistani flag. Mukti Bahini, also known as the ‘Freedom Fighters' that collectively refer to the armed organizations who fought against the Pakistan Army, carried out the massacre of patriotic Pakistanis, which continued until March 25, when Khan declared an army operation on March 26, which finally resulted in the surrender of the Pakistani Army to the Indian Army on December 16, 1971. With the creation of Bangladesh, the killings resumed and Urdu-speaking Pakistanis had to leave their houses and transferred to shanties built by the ICRC. In July 1972, as per the Simla Tripartite Accord, which included Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, only 180,000 Pakistanis were repatriated while about 170,000 continued to stay in the Bangladeshi camps. This was the largest number of stranded Pakistanis brought back to the country by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The next major step was taken by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which he executed the creation of the Rabita Trust in 1992. In July 1988, the Rabita Trust for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis was established with the signatories of President Zia ul Haq and Dr Abdullah Omar Naseef, the then Secretary General of MWL, with an initial fund of $15 million. The government of Punjab (headed by Sharif as the chief minister) allocated free land to build 40,000 houses (for an estimated 4,000 families / 230,000 persons). The Trust estimated the total costs at $200,000 million ($5000 x 40,000 houses). In August 1992, as per the agreement between the then prime ministers of Pakistan (Nawaz Sharif) and Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia), the process of the repatriation of about 3000 destitute families had started and 3000 houses were built with the available fund of $15 million. The first batch of about 55 families arrived in the country on January 10, 1993, and their air travel was financed by Saudi Arabia. Soon the Sharif government dismissed the process. In the 1997 elections, Nawaz Sharif won with a clear majority. He convened the Trust's board meeting in Islamabad on December 26, 1997, in which it was decided to call for financial assistance for Pakistan from the Trust's member countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar. However, due to a lack of awareness, this was not accomplished. The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) on March 23, 1998, convened a seminar entitled ‘Proposal for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis on self-finance basis'. The resolutions passed during the meet were presented to Sharif and others. The self-finance scheme is based on the principle of employment as a means for the settlement of stranded Pakistanis. According to the scheme, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani should request the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah, to grant about 37,000 visas to the male members of the stranded Pakistanis, the Pakistani High Commissioner in Dhaka to issue Pakistani passports, and the Saudi Embassy to issue work visas. Once these persons arrive in the Kingdom and are employed, they would be able to produce documents of house lease and request for Pakistani passports for their families. The IDB as well as other banks would be approached to finance the housing of the stranded Pakistanis in Punjab, where free lands were allocated in 1988. The cost of the housing units would be reduced to USD2,000 so that the total cost would be USD74 million, the loans for which can be easily available. Khan urged Prime Minister Hasina to restore the supply of wheat to the stranded Pakistanis, which was terminated in 2004. “This was their only regular supply of food,” he said, urging the prime minister to allow for the provision of the basic facilities of health care, education and security until the repatriation is done. Khan urged the Pakistani president and prime minister to reactivate the Rabita Trust and to implement the PRC's proposal of ‘self-finance' for the repatriation and rehabilitation of the stranded Pakistanis “without any liability either on the Pakistani government or the MWL.” He said he was “very happy” to perform Umrah and thanked the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka for endorsing his visa. Khan said his father, Naseem Khan, who died in 2005, should be honored with Pakistan's Civil Award for his “services during the 1947 movement, as well as for living as a stranded Pakistani in the Bangladeshi camps, hoisting the Pakistani flag there, and, last but not the least, to have died as a Pakistani,” he said. __
