Pakistan deceived us, say stranded citizens

Many stranded Pakistanis, who still want to be repatriated, say that Pakistan deceived them and grossly violated the tripartite agreement signed by Bangladesh, India and Pakistan in April 1974 in New Delhi.

They said that they were permanently detached from their families and relatives living in Pakistan and were living a miserable life in the camps across Bangladesh since its independence in 1971.

Mohammad Osman, 76, who lives at the so-called Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur in the capital, told New Age that some of his family  members were taken to Pakistan in January 1993 when the country for the last time repatriated some stranded citizens.

‘I want to live with my family members over there. But, the Pakistan government has stopped the repatriation process for over 16 years. Now I wonder whether I can see my sons before my death in this camp,’ Osman lamented.

Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee assistant general secretary Haroon-ur-Rashid said that about 40,000 aged people out of over 4,00,000 stranded Pakistanis still wanted to be repatriated to Pakistan for meeting and living with the families and relatives.

‘Their relatives living in Pakistan filed a writ petition with the Islamabad High Court in 2015 for the repatriation of the remaining stranded Pakistanis living a miserable life in the Bangladesh camps,’ he said, adding that the case was pending with the court.

Haroon, son of SPGRC founding president Nasim Khan, said that some aged stranded Pakistanis did not even take citizenship of Bangladesh even after its High Court in 2008 directed the Bangladesh Election Commission to issue national identity cards to those who wanted to have Bangladesh citizenship.

‘Pakistan has not only cheated its citizens but has also misappropriated Rs 25 crore it collected from Rabita Trust in 1987 for our repatriation and rehabilitation,’ he resented.

SPGRC general secretary M Shoukat Ali said that each of their families had been living in a 64 square-feet room in the Bangladesh camps. 

Shoukat, the head teacher of a school in Geneva Camp, said that many aged people in the camps of Bangladesh still bore the hope that Pakistan would repatriate them in compliance with the 1974 tripartite agreement.

Bangladesh, India and Pakistan on April 9, 1974 struck an agreement that all the three countries would work together to promote the normalisation of relations and ‘the establishment of durable peace in the sub-continent.’ 

Then Bangladesh foreign minister Kamal Hossain, Indian external affairs minister Swaran Singh and Pakistan minister of state for defence and foreign affairs Aziz Ahmed signed the pact.

Aziz in the agreement stated that his country had already issued clearances for the movement to Pakistan in favour of those non-Bengalis who were either domiciled in former West Pakistan, were employees of the central government (and their families) or were members of the divided families, irrespective of their original domicile.

He further stated that Pakistan would receive all those falling under the three specified categories without any limit to numbers.

‘But, Pakistan has not kept its promise in the past 45 years since the treaty was signed,’ said Shahriar Kabir, a writer and researcher. 

Shahriar, also the president of a forum for a secular Bangladesh and the trial of the 1971 war criminals, said that they had been demanding for the past 28 years that Pakistan should take those who wanted to be repatriated there.

‘We also said that those who want to stay on here as Bangladeshi citizens must get all due facilities as others get,’ he added.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 10,00,000  ‘Urdu speakers were living in settlements  throughout Bangladesh awaiting repatriation to Pakistan following the creation of the independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh in 1972’.

After the agreements among Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in 1973 and 1974, a total of 1,78,069 of these stranded people were repatriated to Pakistan between 1973 and 1993, said a ‘note on the nationality status of the Urdu-speaking community in Bangladesh’, published by UNHCR.

The 1973 agreement provided for a three-way repatriation for those stranded in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan from September, 1973.

They were from among the 5,34,792 Urdu speakers who had registered with the International Committee for Red Cross for repatriation, according to the note. 

An estimated 1,00,000 of them spontaneously moved to Pakistan.

The UNHCR, renouncing the status of statelessness of the community, introduced some 2,50,000 people in the country’s camps as ‘the Urdu-speaking nationals of Bangladesh’ following the 2008 HC verdict.

The petitioner of the case, Md. Sadaqat Khan, president of the Stranded Pakistanis Youth Rehabilitation Movement, however, said that they did not get benefits like other Bangladeshis even after getting national identity cards. 

He was unhappy that they found difficulties getting passports, government jobs and other facilities.

‘Prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2015 assured us of providing a respectful rehabilitation. But, we got nothing,’ he said.

He went on that they were forced to do odd jobs, make handicrafts, decoration items and clothes for a living.

‘We have never been to Pakistan but migrated from India after partition in 1947. We never want to go to Pakistan either,’ he said.

He also said that after the Bangladesh High Court verdict they did not get any relief from the government or other agencies as stateless people.

SPGRC leaders Shoukat and Haroon demanded that Pakistan hand over the fund that they collected from the Rabita trust to Bangladesh government for their rehabilitation.

State minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam said that the government was pursuing the Pakistani government for a quick repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis who were willing to be repatriated.

‘We will continue to negotiate to resolve the issue,’ he said.

Disaster management and relief ministry secretary Md Shah Kamal said that the government was thinking about rehabilitating, at Keraniganj, some of those who received Bangladeshi NID.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net