JEDDAH, Oct 13: The Pakistan Repatriation Council has called for discussions the issue of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh in a conference to be held in Islamabad next month.

The conference is titled ‘Refugees in OIC States’.

The Jeddah-based council during a recent meeting urged Pakistan to issue passports to at least one member of every family and help them seek employment abroad so that they could be able to finance repatriation of their families in future, without becoming a burden on either the government or society at large.

The meeting was held under Dr Francis Lamand, president of Islam and the West. Mahfooz Yar Khan of Pakistan Muslim League, who was here to perform Umrah.

Dr Lamand, head of the France-based organisation working to bridge gap between Muslims and the West, supported the council’s proposal.

He said that he had met President Pervez Musharraf in July 2003 in Paris and presented PRC’s memorandum on the issue.

The president had told him he would be invited to Islamabad to discuss the issue, but so far he had received no invitation.

Dr Lamand said he and Dr Abdullah Omar Naseef met UNHCR director in Geneva to press the UN body to grant refugee status to stranded Pakistanis.

According to UNHCR, the request for granting such a status has to come either from their country of origin (Pakistan) or from the host country (Bangladesh). He urged Pakistan, Bangladesh, OIC and UNHCR to take urgent measures to address the issue.

Mahfooz Yar Khan said that his party had organised several conferences on the issue. He said that he would seek Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s help to meet President Musharraf to reactivate the Rabita Trust. “It remains inactive because of a lack of political will and support.”

PRC convener Ehsanul Haque said that the proposal had already been sent to President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The proposal, he said, included recommendations that the IDB, ADB and national and international banks should be approached to help finance the construction of 37,000 housing units in Punjab, where the land was originally allocated in 1988.

Pakistan was also urged to assign its High Commissioner in Dhaka to take care of the stranded Pakistanis.