By IANS
Dhaka : Bangladesh may grant citizenship to most of its Urdu-speaking people, particularly those born since it separated from Pakistan in 1971.
An inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday agreed in principle to include the Urdu-speaking people, who were born in Bangladesh and “showed allegiance to the country”, in the voter list.
The proposal will be implemented after final approval of the law ministry, media reports said Thursday.
About 300,000 Urdu-speaking people live in the country. Of them, about 160,000 living in 116 camps are known as stranded Pakistanis who are willing to go back to Pakistan.
Besides those born after independence, others between the age of 10 and 18 during the 1971 Liberation War who showed loyalty to the Bangladesh will also be included, an unnamed home ministry source was quoted as saying in The Daily Star.
“If the law ministry gives approval, the Urdu-speaking people, except the stranded Pakistanis who are eager to leave Bangladesh, might be included in the voter list,” the source added.
There is still no way out for the thousands of “stranded Pakistanis” who are living in ghetto-like camps monitored by the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) for the past 36 years with hopes of making it to Pakistan.
Also called “Biharis”, since a substantial number of them migrated to erstwhile East Pakistan from the Indian province in 1947, they are essentially non-Bengalis with a record of having sided with the federal regimes of Pakistan.
Their cause and their living conditions have attracted human rights concerns in the past.
Estimates by India and international bodies monitoring human migration say that thousands crossed over clandestinely to India. Many managed to enter Pakistan in the same manner.
Some have been killed while crossing illegally by border guards on the Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Pakistan borders.
Successive governments have faced, but avoided deciding on this issue, partly because of the local resentment.
After years of negotiations with Pakistan, some were accepted by Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister (in 1988 and 1993).
The Election Commission, which is preparing to issue National Identity Cards, wants the government to take a stand on the issue.
Chief Election Commissioner A.T.M. Huda says the commission has pondered over the issue and feels that the “time has now come to look at the issue objectively and with compassion.
“The matter of deciding the citizenship of the people in the camps is very urgent for the reason that after introduction of the National Identity Card as a condition for delivery of a number of services, these people may lose access to many services they currently enjoy,” Huda said in a letter to Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed.