Thank you Sindh Assembly: recognition must go beyond

What is more thrilling than a blockbuster thriller is life itself. Just when I had resigned myself to imagining that the plight of stranded Pakistanis would remain masked under selective memory and political convenience, the news arrived as a surprise: the Sindh Assembly session on December 16, 2025 included a resolution moved by MQM-P lawmaker Engineer Ejaz-ul-Haq to pay tribute to the civilian martyrs of the 1971 East Pakistan tragedy, including members of the Bihari community and other stranded Pakistanis, who sacrificed their lives for Pakistan and supported the Pakistan military.

During the discussion, MPA Ejaz ul Haq highlighted the necessity to officially admit the martyrs and sacrifices of this community. Some accounts suggest that parts of his speech were later not reflected in the official record, after concerns were raised by an honourable member of PPP that it might appear to credit only one community. While these reports have circulated on social media and through anecdotal accounts, no mainstream news outlet has confirmed any formal expungement.

Contextually, the resolution brought attention to the plight of the "stranded Pakistanis" (a vast majority of these Muslims are of Bihari origin) who faced ferocious persecution and continued statelessness after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Their persisting genocide, however, to date remains unacknowledged and largely dismissed by academics, feminist scholars and liberal human rights activists.

The resolution marks the first time a provincial legislature in Pakistan has formally admitted this long-ignored issue. The moment deserves appreciation. At a time of polarised politics, such consensus is rare. The Sindh Assembly must be lauded for taking a principled step that transcends party lines and ethnic considerations. But before this acknowledgement is reduced to symbolism, it is important to recall the lived reality behind it.

In Mohammadpur, Dhaka, stands Geneva Camp, one of several such settlements across Bangladesh where generations of "forgotten flag bearers" continue to live in stuffed, segregated conditions.

My family home (69-C, Muhammad Pur, Dhaka) is officially registered under Bangladesh's "Enemy Property" laws in the name of a Bengali individual. Like thousands of others, we were never consulted when pronouncements were made about our fate. Paths were pulled for "stranded Pakistanis" without asking those who would have to walk them.

We migrated not to Bangladesh or to what was then East Pakistan, we migrated to Pakistan. Why coming to one's own country is described as "migration" remains a question history has never answered.

This is not an isolated story. For over five decades, Pakistani Biharis and other non-Bengalis (read ProPakistan Muslim Citizens) have subsisted in ghettos and camps across Bangladesh, trapped in legal limbo.

Generations have grown up amid overcrowding, economic exclusion, controlled mobility and social marginalisation, and denied full citizenship, property rights and equal access to services. These are not abstract humanitarian claims; they are documented realities.

Against this backdrop, the Sindh Assembly's resolution carries moral weight. But it must not remain a Sindh-specific gesture. The question of stranded Pakistanis is not provincial; it is national. It is imperative that other provincial assemblies and, more importantly, the National Assembly take up this resolution and replicate it in letter and spirit. Pakistan cannot afford selective responsibility towards its own people.

For decades, the state's "ownership" of stranded Pakistanis has vacillated between negligible rhetorical sympathy and plenteous practical neglect. This ambiguity must end. Those who wish to return to Pakistan must be repatriated through serious, time-bound and transparent measures. These are not economic migrants; they are citizens cancelled by history, diplomacy and inertia.

At the same time, justice requires choice. If it is deemed appropriate or if individuals themselves consent (based on an informed choice) to remain in Bangladesh, then full and equal citizenship, along with compensation for properties and businesses confiscated or lost over generations, must be ensured. Human dignity cannot be conditional.

There is also a recurring but misplaced fear that repatriation could disturb provincial demographics. No province should feel threatened by the return of a few thousand long-deserted Pakistanis. Demography cannot be invoked to justify permanent injustice. Federations are strengthened by inclusion, not eroded by it.

Equally critical is the question of memory. The sacrifices of the Bihari community, the violence they endured and the statelessness imposed upon them must become part of mainstream media discourse, academic curricula and foreign policy conversations. Memory, when selective, is not justice.

Recognising one community's suffering, especially when it is happening far too late and for the first time, should not be framed as a competition. Acknowledgment does not diminish others. Empathy is not tied to ethnicity.

Once again I am underscoring that a thoughtful reset with Bangladesh will require Pakistan to confront its own silences and Bangladesh to acknowledge occluded victimhood especially that of the Biharis so that any dialogue is built on full recognition rather than selective memory. Reconciliation cannot be achieved through borrowed metaphors from international relations textbooks or imported European models; it demands contextual honesty rooted not only in the lived histories but also in the HerStories of 1971.

I write this without affiliation to any political party or group. For over fifteen years, I have advocated independently for stranded Pakistanis through research, writing and policy engagement. I have authored two books in English Pakistan, I Still Love You (2018) and The Abandoned Pakistanis: 1971, Betrayal, and Statelessness: A Personal Chronicle of Forgotten Genocide, Selective Memory, and the Fight for Recognition (2025) as well as three books in Urdu, alongside articles, podcasts and policy briefs shared with think-tanks and decision-makers. The purpose has always been singular: to restore memory, empathy and justice for a forgotten community.

The Sindh Assembly has taken a momentous first step. Whether Pakistan chooses to move beyond symbolism to action will determine how history evaluates this moment. Awakening matters only when it leads to responsibility. If it does not, then as many stranded Pakistanis have long felt appeals may find hearing only in a court beyond this world.

Pakistan Hamesha Zindabad!