KARACHI, Jan 6: The issue of the stranded Pakistanis' repatriation could not be resolved over the past 33 years owing to the successive governments' insincerity and this is hurting our pride as Pakistanis.
This was consensus view of the speakers at a seminar organized by the Pakistan Repatriation Council at a local hotel on Thursday. Presided over by eminent figure Jamiluddin Aali, the seminar was attended by Vice Chancellor of Urdu University Iqbal Mohsin, former federal minister Afaq Shahid (PPP), Mehfoozyar Khan (PML), Syed Shuaun Nabi, Syed Muzaffar Hussain Hashmi (JI), and the PRC's Jamaluddin Siddiqui and Mumtaz Alam.
In his presidential remarks, Jamiluddin Aali stressed that the stranded Pakistanis, their leaders and sympathizers should assert their right to be repatriated without any further delay instead of despondency as it was a question of national pride.
Mr Aali was of the view that our armed forces as an institution had been playing no role in delay in materializing the repatriation. "However, there may be some generals,'' he apprehended, and asked all concerned people not to drag the stranded people into politics.
"Pakistan is their country and every one should contribute to their repatriation and come forward with practicable ideas about how to bring them back to their homeland.
Some 250,000 Pakistanis living in makeshift camps for over three decades is a situation which overshadows our national pride. They even refuse to have any other identity but Pakistanis and the people of Bangladesh also recognize tem as Pakistanis.''
Had these 0.25 million people been repatriated and settled in Karachi, they would not have caused any adverse effect on the city which had now a population of more than 15 million, Mr Aali pointed out.
He also appealed to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, to take some concrete measures aimed at settling the stranded Pakistanis in that province as they were patriot Pakistani and Muslim.
He would also like to hold a meeting with PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to urge him to set an example by settling some 250 of the stranded families in his hometown, Gujrat.
Mr Afaq Shahid, in his emotional speech, observed that some politicians, despite their constraints, had contributed to the repatriation of some of the stranded families.
He, like some other speakers, appreciated the move by the late chief minister of Punjab, Ghulam Hyder Wayne who had not only welcomed them to his province, but also offered them cost-free land to build 34,000 residential units during the era of Mian Nawaz Sharif.
He regretted that rulers in Pakistan, in spite of having all required powers and authority had done nothing in 33 years although some of them had survived and managed to reach the power corridors owing to the exemplary sacrifices offered by our sons, brothers and parents who had laid down their life; and our sisters and mothers who lost their chastity.
He questioned the role of Gen Ziaul Haq who ruled the country for more than 10 years, and also of Gen Musharraf who enjoys complete command over the situation, in resolving the issue.
For military rulers, who would topple any elected government at their will, are in a very strong position to resolve the repatriation issue. Afaq Shahid expressed the view that that in fact, their agenda was to wipe out the remaining part of Pakistan from the world map.
In this context, he pointed out that by not resolving the repatriation issue, the rulers were sending the message to the young generation that they should not lay down their lives for the defence of Pakistan. Mr Ehsanul Haq read out resolutions. A message from the PRC chairman Ehteshamuddin Arshad was also read out at the seminar.