Abandoning Our Own
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
Pakistan has a decent history of giving sanctuary to those who have suffered. Notable among the examples are the uprooted Afghans who were generously accommodated in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion.
But it is its record of helping its own which is not a very proud one.
The Bihari in the former eastern wing were Pakistani citizens who opted for Pakistan in 1947 and had again opted for a united Pakistan in 1971. And for that, they were stranded, forgotten and abandoned. Lest it be forgotten, East Pakistan was a province of Pakistan.
The paper, “Denial of Citizenship: A Challenge to Human Security”, prepared in February 2005 for the UN Advisory Board on Human Security, captures the calamity which befell the Biharis: “The case of the Biharis in Bangladesh shows how a community, which had participated in the higher levels of government, once disempowered, was eventually rounded up in camps. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1972, the citizenship of the Biharis was revoked. Their property was confiscated, their houses destroyed and they were forced into camps to await ‘repatriation’ to Pakistan.”
A 2010 well-researched law review article in the University of Toronto Law Journal by Ninette Kelley summarized vividly: the Biharis “for more than 40 years constituted one of the largest, yet not well-known, de facto stateless populations on earth.”
It was the attitude of Pakistani officialdom that condemned them to remain in stateless limbo. They let down those who did not let down Pakistan.
An excerpt from the Toronto law review article conveys the desperation of the abandoned:
“Within Pakistan, there was never a sufficiently powerful coalition in favor of relocating to Pakistan those who felt stranded in Bangladesh, nor were there strong enough political reasons for the government to pursue their return unilaterally. Over these years, the stranded Pakistanis felt betrayed by Pakistan. Many had sold what little they owned in 1974 in anticipation of being repatriated to Pakistan; their dreams were never realized, leaving them with few belongings, limited opportunities, and perpetual separation from their families in Pakistan. They saw themselves as quite literally stranded, and, as the years passed, their embitterment toward Pakistan deepened, even though, for many of the older generation, their wish to repatriate did not diminish.”
Credit here has to be given to Bangladesh higher courts, which – despite governmental hostility – upheld the right of Biharis to secure Bangladesh citizenship. In their rulings, they were guided by law, and not by emotion and politics.
The present-day humanitarian picture remains dire as, according to the Toronto article: “There are an estimated 151,000 Biharis living in 116 camps and settlements in Bangladesh, which by all accounts are dilapidated and utterly dismal. Adequate water supplies are lacking. Sanitation services are practically non-existent, with few toilets, washing facilities, garbage disposal, or proper drainage. Ten to twelve family members typically live in spaces averaging eight feet by eight feet. There is no privacy, and poor health is endemic.”
The torment of the Bihari is a stain on the nation. In striking contrast, the much-maligned West refuses to disown its own, whatsoever may be the scale of offence.
It is an irony of Pakistan history that those with a proven record of perfidy have flourished while those with unflinching loyalty have been punished.
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