Over to you, FO: Ministry passes the buck on stranded Pakistanis

Submits a reply in the apex court about 300,000 people currently in Bangladesh camps

ISLAMABAD:

The interior ministry on Tuesday passed the buck onto the foreign ministry as it responded to an inquiry raised in a Supreme Court petition about the possible repatriation of 300,000 Pakistanis currently stranded in Bangladesh.

In its reply submitted through Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mahmood in the apex court, the interior ministry said the foreign ministry would be in a better position to respond to the query.

The Supreme Court has resumed the hearing of the petition filed by the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee of Bangladesh regarding the repatriation of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh on Wednesday (today).



Mahmood pointed out that most of the points raised in the petition related to the ministry of foreign affairs, which being party in this case will be in a better position to respond.

The reply, however, stated that under clause (i) of sub section (1) of section 16-A of the Pakistan citizenship Act 1951, all those persons residing in those territories, which before December 16, 1971 constituted the province of East Pakistan are residing since that day voluntarily or otherwise shall cease to be citizens of Pakistan.

It also states, however, the persons, who have not been repatriated before March 18, 1978, the date of amendment/insertion of subject section and whose repatriation has been agreed by the federal government shall continue to be citizens of Pakistan as provided under provision to clause (iv) of sub section 1 of section 16-A of the Citizenship Act 1951.”

The ministry of foreign affairs will seek time on Wednesday (today) for submitting a reply in this case, The Express Tribune has learnt.

In a previous hearing, the chief justice had questioned whether the top court had the jurisdiction for asking relevant parties about the implementation of the 1974 Tripartite Agreement between India, Bangladesh and Pakistan on Normalisation of Relations in the Subcontinent. “Who is stopping them [stranded Pakistanis] from coming to Pakistan?” he had asked.

Rashidul Qazi, counsel for the petitioner, highlighted the appalling conditions that the stranded Pakistanis were facing in Bangladesh. “They were thrown out of employment and their properties and assets were either frozen by the [Bangladesh] government or looted by miscreants,” he said.

Qazi stressed that they were still citizens of Pakistan and despite the ‘sub-human’ conditions they had been subjected to still proudly hoisted the Pakistani flag. “They were offered Bangladeshi citizenship, but they refused to accept it,” he stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.