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Stranded Pakistanis

Token repatriation starts this month

By Toufique Imrose Khalidi
A token repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis is likely to take place in the last week of this month to honour the August accord between the Prime Ministers, official sources Indicated.
"We arc trying to set about by sending a batch of the peo pie by the year end as a symbolic implementation of the commitment at the highest political level." a senior official, who 1s a member of the task force formed to coordinate the repatriation activities in Bangladesh, said.
During Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's August 9-1 1 visit to the country. Pakistan promised to start the process of taking its 2.38 lakh nationals by December. A Joint statement Issued at the end of Begum Zias trip said that 3000 families would be taken Initially.
Islamabad has said that housing facilities for the returnees who would number
nearly 20000 are complete. A flat for each of the families has been constructed tn Pakistan h most populous Punjab
lance from the Rabtta Trust, a joint effort of the Pakistan gov ernment and the Makkah-based Rabi tat al Alam al Islam! or Muslim World league
Identity cards have already been prepared for the 3000 families who have been picked from the camps in Adamjeenagar. Bogra and Chittagong. According to Nasim Khan, the leader of the Stranded Pakistanis' General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC), the selection has been made on alphabetical order which. Khan says, was agreed at a joint meeting of the Pakistan High Commission tn Dhaka, SPGRC leaders and the focal Rabtta officials
The task force headed by Foreign Secretary Reaz Rahman has so far held two
meetings to discuss the preparations on the part of Bangladesh. The committee with representatives from different ministries is yet to find a suitable place for raising a transit camp and chalk out the modalities of mobilisation ■nd immigration formalities of the returnees. According to officials, preparations on both . sides have been delayed by the forthcoming SAARC summit.
However, the December 12-13 event will provide an opportunity for the Prime Ministers to review the progress, and, according to some sources, they might fix a date.
Meanwhile, the stranded Pakistanis arc planning to take to the streets if the process does not start by December 31.
"We are awaiting the completion of the SAARC conference ... we don't want to damage it we don't want to antagonise the host country," said Nasim Khan who apprehends that the repatriation might not start as planned.
"Our people have sold their belongings, they are packing up, many of them have been removed from Jobs," Khan said speaking to The Daily Star.
‘They are frustrated as there is no date yet." ■
Khan said that he was in
contact with Karachi. Lahore and Islamabad and claimed that a "citizens, committee" had been formed 'in Lahore to greet the returnees setting aside suggestions that antirepatriation agitations in some parts of Pakistan or its troubled political scenario might affect the planned return of the first batch of 3000 families.
He said that he had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his stay in Dhaka. Recalling his meeting with President Ziaul Huq in Dhaka in 1985 Khan said, "I believe he will maintain the tradition."
Meanwhile, another faction of the SPGRC based In Khulna in a telegraphic message to the Press yesterday threatened to launch a "serious movement" if the government of Pakistan "fails to provide subsistence allowances and Pakistani passport to each and every stranded Pakistani na-tlonals in Bangladesh."
The message from the faction's leader one EJaj Ahmed Siddique said that the stranded Pakistanis would "gherao" the Pakistan embassy In Dhaka, set fire to the Pakistani flags, organise hunger strikes and lay siege to the SAARC summit venue in Dhaka.