Stranded Pakistanis to meet Pak FM today

Chief Patron of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC) M Nasim Khan told a press conference at the National Press Club here yesterday that about 250,000 people of the community have been languishing in different camps across Bangladesh in a subhuman conditions for decades now.

More than 32 years have elapsed after the independence of Bangladesh, when they were left behind after the war, and many Pakistani leaders gave them assurances about repatriation.

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And 1,000 housing units constructed for them in Punjab are lying vacant while sufficient funds are available as well with the Rabita Trust for the rehabilitation. But none came up to end their plight, Nasim Khan said.

President General Pervez Musharraf also gave us assurance of looking into the matter during his visit to Dhaka last year. But nothing came out of that as yet, Nasim Khan said.

"I'll fight till my last for the cause," said the 82-yeard-old Khan, who, in last 30 years, have negotiated many times with leaders of Bangladesh and Pakistan and also with different international organisations for the repatriation of the Pakistanis from here.

The stranded Pakistanis, better known as Biharis, opted to go to Pakistan after the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.

Only about two lakh of them could go till 1993 while over 250,000 others are living in different camps in Dhaka, Chittagong, Syedpur, Rangpur and other areas.

Nasim Khan appealed to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia for allowing a five-member delegation of SPGRC to meet and apprise her of the problems of the camp life.

SPGRC President Abdul Jabbar Khan, General Secretary M Showkat Ali and others were present.