ON his recent visit to the Kingdom, Farooq Sattar, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, was presented with a memorandum urging the reactivation of the Rabita Trust and starting the process of rehabilitation and repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh. The minister showed concern for the quarter million Pakistanis stranded in the Bangladeshi camps since 1972 and assured that the proposals made in the memo will be brought to the notice of the higher authorities and the leadership. He said the issue needs ‘careful handling'. The memo outlines the ‘self-finance proposal' that envisages employment of the male stranded Pakistanis in the Kingdom and other Gulf countries. The document was submitted by Engineer Syed Ehsan Ul Haque, convener of the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) at a reception held by Syed Riaz Hussain Bukhari, president of the Pakistan Peoples Community - Saudi Arabia, at a local restaurant in Jeddah. Those present at the meet included: Zaighamuddin Azam, Pakistani Consul General; Nasrullah Wattoo, Welfare Consul; Tasawwar Choudhry, chief organizer and member of Pakistan Peoples Community; Mohammad Ashfaque Mahmood, principal of Pakistan International School Jeddah, Al-Azizia; Shamshad Siddiqui; Atiq Ur Rehman, Mohibban–e-Pakistan; and Choudhry Akram. Sattar was visiting Saudi Arabia on the occasion of the 63rd Independence Day of Pakistan.
