Has Pakistani society ever thought, who shelters muslim refugees?
There is not a single muslim country in the world who ever welcomes muslim refugees from other parts of the world, whether it’s Bihari Muslim in Bangladesh, or Chechen ir Russian Federation. The countries like Saudia Arabia even discriminate people from third world countries like Pakistan and India. They have a policy called Eastern Contract & Western Contract where they givel less remuneration to the people from India or Pakistan but offer hefty packages for those from white countries for the same job and same level of responsibilities.
It’s countries like Canada and Sweden who embrace and help muslim refugees. That’s why I used to tell my muslim friends that there was no point to be pro-pakistan because Pakistan is never going to shelter you if you become a refugee in this country. The case of Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh is before us. Why Pakistani society don’t think in this direction? Why Saudis don’t think so? Where is the muslim brotherhood?
Good point............even though I personally believe that settling the Biharis will be hell of a problem but we have a obligation towards them.They want to be pakistanis(infact they are pakistanis) but we abandoned them.
Punjab has put foward a nice example of settling Biharis but many problems still need to be solved
People try to reject that biharis are Pakistanis when in fact the bhutto administration (popularly elected..) said that all these biharis that were in the camps back then and claim pakistani citizenship are in fact Pakistanis!
Even Zia didn't reject that (or any other pakistani government in its official position).
FRANKLY, I feel sorry for these chaps. Had it been any other country, it would have taken these people if only for the fact that they supported Pak Army regardless of their own life (case in point, Israel resettling SLA members into Israel).
Why your anti-saudi hatred? A gentleman I personally know was granted refugee status in Saudi Arabia in the late 70s. He was a Bengali member of the East Pakistan wing of the Jamaat-i-Islam, who served as a minister in the provincial government in 1971, and was imprisoned and persecuted for years afterwards by the Bangladeshi government for having opposed Bangladesh’s independence.
He lived out the rest of his life as a refugee in Medina, though he ofen visited the UK where I met him many times.
He’s not the only refugee in Saudi Arabia. Saudia Arabia has an estimated 500,000 refugees, mainly Palestinian. This means that in fact nearly 2% of the Saudi population are refugees.
2% !!! And then you say that Saudi Arabia doesn’t accept refugees.
Similarly, Pakistan already hosts more refugees than we have the capacity to handle. We have hosted 2 million Afghan refugees in the past and despite being down to 1 million now, don’t have the resources to spare to provide properly for them, let alone Biharis.
Besides which, Pakistan and all Muslim countries do not consider Biharis to be refugees. Pakistan’s position is that only those employed by the Pakistani government before 1971 had a claim to citizenship. The rest, as residents of Bangladesh, should be Bangladeshi citizens.
Indeed, since 2003, Biharis have had the right to vote in Bangladesh and Bangladesh is thus very close to accepting that fact that the Biharis are Bangladeshis and not Pakistanis.
Ethnic Bengalis in Bangladesh who were pro-Pakistan were never recognised by Bangladesh or Pakistan as Pakistanis after 1971… why should the Biharis be treated differently?
He lived out the rest of his life as a refugee in Medina, though he ofen visited the UK where I met him many times.
Yes Nawaj Sharif and his family too were given similar political asylum. Can a poor muslim refugee hope to get help from Saudis? Will Saudis accomodate poor palestinian refugees?
Saudis discriminate Indians and Pakistanis too. I had got a job in a Saudi Govt owned company and when I learnt that a white guy for the same job was getting almost three times than me and had been offered hefty perks while whatever was promised was not given to me then I felt enraged and then I asked my mother to fax a letter that she had been hospitalised and then on that basis I got my passport back and then left the country, never to return. You may say that it's an individual case but just speak to any Indian or Pakistani expatriate living in Saudi Arabia and then you will hear the same stories of rampant discrimination.
I would never like to go to Saudi Arabia but for my mother to accompany her to perform Haj since my father is no more.