Participants at the Pakistan Repatriation Council meeting in Jeddah.

The Pakistan Repatriation Council organized a function here recently to mark the birth anniversary of Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

The meeting adopted resolutions calling on the government of Pakistan to resolve the issue of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh and also urged Islamabad to seek the help of UN and the US for holding a plebiscite in Kashmir as per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

Saudi writer and former diplomat Ali Al-Ghamdi said Jinnah was not only a leader of Pakistan but of the whole Muslim world.

Jinnah assumed the leadership of Muslim League and fought for a separate state for the Muslims of the subcontinent, which was eventually created in 1947, Al-Ghamdi said. He urged all Pakistanis to adhere to his teachings of Unity, Faith and Discipline.

He said Muslims of Bihar gave a lot of sacrifices in 1947 and in 1971 for Pakistan. After the creation of Bangladesh they became captive and are still languishing in camps.

Al-Ghamdi appealed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to arrange their repatriation.

Chief guest Dr. Shahid Rasheed, general secretary of the Ideology of Pakistan, said Jinnah was probably the only leader who had an impeccable character and was known for his honesty and commitment. He wanted Pakistan to become a modern Islamic welfare state based on the Qur’an and Sunnah.

Those who portray him as a secular leader are trying to misguide the nation, he said.

He said he visited the camps of stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh in 1990 and was really shocked to see them living in inhuman condition. Rasheed said if we can accommodate three million Afghan refugees, there is no reason why we should deny the quarter of a million patriotic Pakistanis their right to live in Pakistan.

Pakistani leader Mir Nawaz Khan Marwat said he had the honor of meeting Jinnah twice, once in Peshawar in 1946 and earlier in Allahabad conference. He said he visited stranded Pakistanis’ camps and found those people living like animals.

Amir Mohammad Khan, chairman of Pakistan Journalists Forum, said if we had adhered to the teachings of Quaid-e-Azam, fall of Dhaka, Peshawar school massacre or even terrorism would not have happened in the country. He said it is shameful that our patriotic citizens are languishing in Bangladesh for 44 years and paying very high price for their patriotism.

Convener Syed Ehsanul Haque stressed the need to educate the young generation so that they understand the mission of Jinnah and Iqbal that envisaged Pakistan as an Islamic welfare state. Abu Bakar Memon said Jinnah’s strong leadership made the creation of Pakistan possible and Sindh Assembly was the first to voice support for Pakistan.

Choudhry Riaz Ghumman of Kashmir Committee, Tayyab Mosani, secretary general of Pakistan Memon Association, community leader Shamsuddin Altaf, Engr. Azeez Ahmed, head of Pakistan Engineers’ Society and social worker Mohammad Amanatullah also spoke.