Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi

 

SEVERAL writers, including me, have written numerous articles describing the dismal condition of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh since the secession of East Pakistan and foundation of the new nation of Bangladesh. I drew attention to the issue of these people in many meetings, seminars and forums as I am well aware of their miseries ever since my diplomatic career at the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka in late 1980s.



During those days, I visited the largest among the squalid camps where these people are languishing without even the basic requirements of life. I still recall that Mohammad Naseem Khan, one of the leaders of stranded Pakistanis who lived in the camp, staged a hunger strike on the pavement of the camp. At that time, Mir Quasem Ali, director of the office of the Muslim World League (Rabita) in Dhaka approached me with a request to accompany him to jail to visit Khan in order to boost his morale and offer a pledge of support. Ali is now behind bars after being framed with unfounded charges of war crimes. (May Allah help to get him released from prison).



In my previous writings and speeches, I described the pathetic condition of the Biharis or stranded Pakistanis living in these camps. But when I read an article written by Anika Hussain in a Dhaka newspaper called ‘Daily Star,’ I realized that what I had written about their miseries were not sufficient enough to give a minute picture of the ordeal they are experiencing as depicted by Hussain.



Let me quote a few sentences from her article: “When one walks into the Bihari Camp in Mohammadpur, locally referred to as the ‘Market Camp,’ it is as though one has left the city and entered a different world — the world of the condemned. An overwhelming stench of garbage and stagnant water hits you with violent force. The narrow alleyways, littered with garbage, human and animal waste, are barely wide enough for an average sized person to squeeze through.



“As you make your way toward the heart of the camp, you hear loud chatter and music, a crowd of people are seen standing around a flowing tap holding buckets, pots and plastic bottles, watching a group of men, women and children bathing and washing clothes.



‘There are 12,000 people in this camp and about 6,000 of us use this one tap to bathe, wash, drink, cook-everything,’ says Nargis Parveen, who has grown up in the camp, ‘There has been a water crisis here for as long as I can remember-this is the way we live.’”



A few roads down, lies another camp, the Geneva Camp, which houses 35,000 people. “We have only two taps here for all our residents,” says M. Shoukat Ali, the General Secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC).



“The water that comes out of these taps are foul smelling and filthy, and people are forced to drink it because they have no choice. We only have 228 toilets for all the residents and half of them are out of order. We have regular outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and dengue,” he continues, “We have one water filter and I let the children from our school drink from it. It is insufficient. The city corporation wants nothing to do with us, they refuse to clean our camp or let us dispose of our garbage the way everyone else does”.



The stranded Pakistanis, who are languishing in these camps for more than 43 years, committed no wrong other than opting to live in Pakistan when the country was founded following the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. They moved to East Pakistan from the Indian state of Bihar due to its proximity to that part of Pakistan.



However, when Bengalis wanted to secede from Pakistan and create a new nation of their own, these people stood by the Pakistan Army and supported its efforts to keep the country united. But when Pakistan lost the war, these Biharis were the biggest losers.



Under the Simla Agreement, signed between India and Pakistan following the war in 1971, the Pakistani troops who were prisoners of war, managed to return to Pakistan. However, these people were left behind to lead a miserable life with a grim future. They were subjected to killing, and looting besides being driven away from their homes. Those who escaped from these atrocities took shelter in the aforesaid camps.



It is the moral responsibility of everybody to stand by these people and there should be a humanitarian approach to end the suffering of these people. Therefore, I make an appeal to the government of Pakistan, especially Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, to take this as a joint responsibility of all Pakistanis. Even though Sharif made some efforts to resolve the issue through repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis during his previous two tenures as prime minister, he was not successful in it because of the adverse circumstances.



Anyhow, now this is the right time for Sharif to take up this issue and do justice to these people. Let the Prophet’s saying be a guideline for him in this regard: “Allah will help a person so long as he is helping his brother.”

— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at algham@hotmail.com