ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed petition of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh after the Foreign Office submitted a report that there are large number of Biharis in Bangladesh who do not want to be repatriated to Pakistan.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, hearing the case, ruled that neither the petitioner (Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee) is an affected party nor has locus standi in the case.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed that according to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the Biharis in Bangladesh are its citizens. Justice Saqib inquired from the petitioner under what law the organization is seeking repatriation of Baharis. The judge stated it (SPGRC) is not a statutory body.
The counsel, representing the organization, told that in the last hearing of another bench while hearing this case had issued notice to the Attorney General for Pakistan for assistance. However, Justice Saqib said there was no need of it and he has no interest in the case and disposed of the petition.
In 2009 Advocate Rashid-ul-Haq Qazi, as a representative of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee and the Organization for Repatriation of Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which after five years in May 2014, was admitted for hearing.
According to Rashidul Haq Qazi, the counsel for the SPGRC, approximately 160,000 stranded Pakistanis were repatriated to Pakistan in term of Tripartite Dehli Agreement, signed between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but later on Pakistan has not fulfilled 25 percent of the terms of agreement and repatriation was stopped unilaterally in 1974. The Foreign Office report states currently there are around 400,000 to 500,000 stranded Pakistanis residing in Bangladesh and these remaining people are the responsibility of Bangladesh government.
The report claimed that large number of Biharis stranded in Bangladesh do not want to be repatriated to Pakistan. “There is a difference of opinion on their repatriation to Pakistan or otherwise.”
The reply further states that Pakistan and India in occurrence with Bangladesh, signed an agreement on “repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees” on August 28, 1973 in New Delhi, adding that subsequently, on April 9 1974, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh signed a tripartite agreement.
Further, more than 170,000 Biharis have already been repatriated to Pakistan and the repatriation was facilitated by the cabinet division prior to the decisions of the Bangladesh Supreme Court on the status of non-Bengalis, the foreign office said.
The Foreign Office also submitted copies of the May 2003 and May 2008 verdicts of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, wherein the top Bangladeshi court declared that Biharis are the citizens of Bangladesh and accordingly are eligible and entitled to be enrolled as voters in electoral rolls in the country.
The report also claimed that a large numbers of Biharis even exercised their right of vote during the general elections of Bangladesh in December 2008 and January 2014, adding that many of these people have also acquired Bangladeshi passports.
While terming the plight of non-Bengalis in Bangladesh a ‘humanitarian’ issue, the foreign office said, “Pakistan considers the plight of the non-Begalis a “humanitarian” issue and Pakistan has been providing assistance to them.”