Friends Of Humanity Support Stranded Pakistanis
17 March 2018
By Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi
Friends of Humanity, a non-profit charity society founded by Pakistani
immigrants in Chicago, carries out charity work in various places. Its
activities are concentrated mainly in the camps of stranded Pakistanis in
Bangladesh, which were set up after the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan
in 1971. These stranded people are waiting for the Pakistani government to
undertake their repatriation and rehabilitation. They were part of the
population of East Pakistan until the civil war that ended with the creation
of the state of Bangladesh. During the civil war, they stood by the Pakistan
army and consequently Bengalis considered them to be traitors and drove them
out of their homes and into camps scattered in different parts of Bangladesh.
Recently, I received a set of photographs from Ehtesham Arshad Nezami,
secretary general of the Friends of Humanity society. The pictures show the
way boy and girl students are entertained at schools run by the society on the
premises of these camps in Bangladesh. These pictures illustrate that even
those living in the midst of misery and hardship can rejoice and feel
delighted when compassionate hands and dignified souls reach out to them by
making available some of the basic amenities of life that they have been
deprived of for some time.
The pictures show young children wearing simple but clean and tidy clothes.
They stand in queues and are excited when accorded an affectionate reception
by their teachers. According to the available information, the attendance rate
at these schools has hit 100 percent, which confirms that the efforts made by
some benevolent and sincere people to open these schools have not been in
vain. Similarly, the donations of philanthropists will definitely help them
win the blessings of God because of their support for this most deserving
section of the community.
It is a national and humanitarian responsibility to succor these hapless
people. However, those who are supposed to shoulder this responsibility have
failed to discharge their duty. By this I mean the Pakistani officials who
have failed to fulfill the promises made by successive Pakistani governments
for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis.
At the time of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, these people
migrated to East Pakistan due to the proximity of their native place in the
Indian state of Bihar, but when the state of Bangladesh was created on the
ruins of East Pakistan, they were not welcome in the new country. In fact,
they wanted to retain the Pakistani citizenship that they had chosen at the
time of partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.
During the reign of President General Zia Ul-Haq, some measures were taken to
repatriate these people to Pakistan and settle them on land donated by the
Punjab provincial government. This was in cooperation with the then Muslim
World League (MWL) Secretary General Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef. For this
purpose, the Rabita Endowment was set up headed by Pakistan president Zia.
Several prominent Saudi and Pakistani figures, including Prince Talal Bin
Abdul Aziz, were members of the endowment. After the death of General Zia,
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assumed the presidency of the endowment during his
first two tenures. A limited number of stranded Pakistanis were repatriated
and rehabilitated in Pakistan during this period. But when Sharif became prime
minister for the third time, he unfortunately did not do or say anything about
the subject.
At a time when the Friends of Humanity society and all its members address
this issue, I take this opportunity to thank them for their noble work and
blessed initiatives. We also call upon the Pakistani government to shoulder
its national, moral and humanitarian responsibility toward its citizens who
have been languishing in squalid camps for nearly 47 years.
Let the first step be to grant them Pakistani passports so as to enable them
to move. There should also be a move to revive the Rabita Endowment or
implement the proposal of the Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) to adopt a
self-financing scheme in their repatriation under which these people would
meet the cost of transportation.
We heard earlier about the intention of a parliamentary committee to study the
situation of the stranded Pakistanis. It would be interesting to learn whether
this panel recommended any concrete solution or if its fate is similar to that
of a petition lodged earlier with the Pakistani Supreme Court. The court
rejected the petition, which sought its intervention to direct the Pakistani
government to resolve the issue of the stranded Pakistanis, on the grounds
that the petitioner was not a Pakistani citizen. It is unfortunate that no
Pakistanis raised the just cause of these people, which resulted in the
rejection of their case by the court. The Prophet (peace be upon him)
underlined the need for supporting the weaker sections among us.
Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast
Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com
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