KARACHI – A number of Bangali Pakistanis on Sunday took out a protest rally and demanded immediate issuance of computerised national identity cards and registration of their names in voters’ lists while announcing their unconditional support for the MQM in the forthcoming general elections.
The rally was taken out by the Pakistani Bengalis Action Committee from Numaish Chowrangi to Tibet Centre on the MA Jinnah Road. Speaking at a rally, PBAC Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Feroz announced an unconditional support for the MQM, saying that the MQM was the only party which raised a voice for more than three million Bengalis living in different parts of the country, especially in Karachi.
He said that the Bengalis were living in the country by birth and since partition, but the government have not issued them computerised national identity cards and they were still ineligible for casting their votes in elections. Feroz, however, appreciated the MQM’s efforts in solving their problems and said that the Bengalis would play their vital role in the upcoming election for the MQM success.
He demanded a strict action against the officials who were responsible for the delay and immediate issuance of the CNICs. He added that the votes of Bengalis were not being registered in voters’ lists. A score of people including women and children participated in the rally, who arrived from different parts of the city including Korangi, Macchar Colony, Nusrat Bhutto Colony and Orangi Town.
“The Bengalis are living like aliens and illegal migrants in their own country,” Feroz said and added that these Bengalis had never accepted Bangladesh as their country and they were completely loyal to Pakistan. He said that Nadra, the National Alien Registration Authority and the Federal Investigation Agency were harassing the Bengali-origin Pakistanis on one pretext or the other. They were not being issued CNICs, B-forms, passports and other legal documents, he said.
He further said that there were more than 200 localities of the Bengalis in the country and some of them were located in Orangi, Korangi and Macchar Colony areas of Karachi.
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Source: The Nation
