DHAKA, June 20: The High Court of Bangladesh on Monday asked the government to explain within two weeks why the cancellation of payment of gratuitous relief to the stranded Pakistanis should not be declared illegal. The court issued the notice while hearing a writ petition filed by three stranded Pakistanis — Sadakat Khan, Mustaque Ahmed and Shahed Ali Bablu — living in ‘Geneva Camp’ in the Mirpur area of Dhaka city, challenging the Jan 27, 2004, order issued by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

Pleading for the petitioners, Rafiqul Islam Mia submitted that the government had the order without assigning any reason, putting the stranded Pakistanis living in 70 camps in 13 districts across the country in an impossible position.

The act of withholding relief to the 2,500,000 stranded Pakistanis is inhuman, he argued.