Agonies of stranded Pakistanis
Abu Imran
Biharis or the stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh have been living a miserable life in various campus for the last 34 years. Their number is estimated to be around 3 lakh. Among them the old and the children suffer the most. But it is unfortunate that their cause has been ignored. It is true that the onus lies with Pakistan since the prime reason for their suffering is that they supported the cause of Pakistan during the liberation war in 1971. And as such it is the responsibility of Pakistan to take them. Perhaps in the above consideration over one lakh people were officially repatriated during 1973-74 with the understanding that more people would be taken as could be understood from observation of ZA Bhutto. The observation said "If some of them come, say two, three and four hundred thousand, then that would be better" (Hindustan Standard early 1972 or 1973. I am sorry, I forgot the exact date).The spirit and commitment of the above observation was that Bhutto could take around 4 lakh people. But the persons repatriated were far short of the above figure. It was just over a lakh only. But Bhutto ignored his own commitment and stopped the repatriation process abruptly in 1974. The subsequent leaders like Ziaul Haque, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, all ignored the problem of the stranded Pakistanis although they deserved the consideration most. It was possible the leadership mentioned above ignored the problem because of their Punjabi and Sind origin and hence failed to appreciate the problem relating to the Biharis. Now perhaps is the appropriate time because the leadership belongs to the Mohajirs or the immigrants. President Pervez Musharraf is of Indian origin, so is the Prime Minister. Besides them there are scores of parliamentarians belonging to MQM representing the Mohajirs or the persons of Indian origin like the stranded Pakistanis. On top of the above, the Sind Home Minister, Mr Rouf Siddiqui and the MQM leader stationed in London are Mohajirs. It is expected that the cause of the stranded Pakistanis now could be well served. This is because being Mohajirs, they would better understand the pangs and sufferings of the unfortunate stranded Pakistanis better. It is now the duty of the Mohajir leadership to be active and press upon the Govt. of Pakistan to arrange for their earliest repatriation. It is likely that both the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan have forgotten the issue but not the international community and the human rights groups. The international community also has the responsibility to put moral pressure on Govt of Pakistan like what Mr Kuldip Nayar, the eminent Indian columnist did. In his recent article captioned "Dhaka is looking up," (The Daily Star dt. 16.07.06), he observed, "In the meanwhile, Islamabad would do well to repatriate some three lakh Biharis, the stranded Pakistanis, who have been living in Bangladesh for the last 34 years in deplorable physical and psychological conditions." In line with above, pressure from international community perhaps may help to cut the ice and the distressed stranded Pakistanis' problem could be solved. Abu Imran is a retired govt. official.
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