DHAKA: The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) has called on the government of Pakistan to repatriate the quarter of a million Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh.

At a meeting with the visiting Pakistani senator, Raja Zafarul Haq, PRC convener Syed Ehsanul Haq said the current Pakistan government should initiate the repatriation process because Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had supported this issue when he was the chief minister of Punjab and also during his tenure as prime minister between 1993 and 1997. Some of the stranded Pakistanis were repatriated during that period and rehabilitated in Mian Channu in Punjab.

He submitted a memorandum to Sen. Haq asking the government to initiate the repatriation. Zafarul Haq said he would convey the PRC plea to the prime minister and also forward the memorandum to him.

The PRC, at a meeting, earlier this week discussed the immense contribution made by Dr. Abdullah Omar Al-Naseef and prayed for his speedy recovery. Dr. Naseef, a former secretary general of the Muslim World League, underwent an open-heart surgery recently and is recuperating.

Abu Farhan Siddiqui, secretary-general of Muslim Welfare and Development Organization (MWDO), presented a report about the activities of the organization in Bangladesh. MWDO assists stranded Pakistanis living in Bangladesh camps. It takes care of the education of their children, provides hundreds of destitute families subsistence allowance and medical treatment and help them by organizing camps where food and other items are distributed. MWDO supports more than 550 students studying in several institutions up to the university level. It also organizes slaughter of a large number of animals on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha and distribute the meat among hundreds of families living in camps.

Source: arabnews.com
BDST: 0847 HRS, NOV 23, 2013