DHAKA: For nearly 325,000 Pakistanis in refugee camps in Bangladesh, some of whom have lived there for as long as 30 years, a ruling passed by the High Court this month holds out the hope that they will no longer be living in limbo, denied both homeland and rights.

It is a legal first in Bangladesh — a landmark order and also the first time refugee plaintiffs have successfully won citizenship rights. That indeed is the scope of the victory for the 10 Pakistanis, including three women, who are now on the voting rolls.

The verdict “made us feel proud”, said Ejaz Ahmed Siddiqui, president of the Bangladesh Refugees Welfare and Development Committee. “The High Court ruling has ended the feeling of uncertainty the Pakistanis have had about their future.”

Although it is a victory for a small number of people — victims of the Indian subcontinent’s bloody history after the 1974 partition — its significance is considerable. The 10 are among the 20,000 who live in the Geneva Camp in Dhaka.

It is just one of the 63 refugee camps set up for the Pakistanis, also commonly called ‘Biharis’, their origin being the eastern Indian state of Bihar.

“We have always considered ourselves Bangladeshi citizens,” said 24-year old Mohammed Hasan, one of the 10 petitioners. “Now that I am eligible to be a voter, I will fight to establish all my rights as a citizen of Bangladesh.”

The importance the petitioners place on being able to vote relates to their application, before the October 2001 general elections, to the Election Commission for inclusion in the voter rolls. The commission refused, which prompted the 10 to submit their plea to the High Court.

In October 2001, the High Court asked the Election Commission to explain why the petitioners should not be considered Bangladeshi citizens and added to the voting rolls. The High Court bench of Justices Hamidul Huq and Zinat Ara issued their ruling in favour of the 10 petitioners.

The Bangladesh Law and Justice Minister, Modoud Ahmed, quickly said the government would implement High Court order, but Siddiqui has called for the immediate rehabilitation of Pakistanis in the 63 camps.

Such a move is long overdue. Those living in the camps eke out a miserable existence. The refugee camps are squalid and dirty. Uncleared heaps of refuse and pools of filthy, stagnant water are their environment.

Sanitation is deplorable — residents have to queue up to use toilets — and the water supply is scanty. A hut that should accommodate no more than three persons is usually home to five and more persons.

According to several estimates, close to 60 per cent of the residents were born and brought up in the camps after the 1971 independence of Bangladesh, which used to be East Pakistan. These are young people who are bearing the burden of a history whose making they had no part in.

“Why should we go to Pakistan where the language is different, the way of life is different and the climate is different,” asked Yunus, a 28-year-old man from the Mirpur refugee camp, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Like his contemporaries, Yunus speaks, reads and writes Bengali. The language is in fact their mother tongue, and not Urdu, which their parents used and is the language commonly used in Pakistan.

It is the young upon whom the burden falls heaviest. Boys and girls leave the camps every morning to supplement the meagre incomes of their parents — they pull rickshaws, push carts, work as helpers in buses and trucks, and in shops and restaurants.

Still others are fruit vendors and vegetable sellers. Many camp girls work as domestic workers, drawing a pittance as their wage. Work in garment factories brings no better, in terms of hours and income.

This is a generation that has not been educated — the primary schools in the camps are mostly dysfunctional, and attendance is very thin.

It is not a state of affairs elders in the camps thought would come to pass. “Pakistan could give shelter, food and even arms to four million Afghans,” argued one such refugee.

Yet it is the documented and historical record of the turbulent years that saw the emergence of independent Bangladesh that continue to weigh against the young camp dwellers.

The Biharis numbered about 800,000 in what was then East Pakistan, and they earned the wrath and hatred of Bengalis for siding with Pakistan during the war of liberation that lasted from March to December 1971.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.