Stranded Pakistanis want to vote in Bangladesh

Dhaka, Aug 4: Young Urdu-speaking Biharis, children of families stranded in Bangladesh since Indian partition 60 years ago, today demanded the right to vote in the next Bangladeshi elections.

The stateless youths are the offspring of some 300,000 Biharis, who migrated to then East Pakistan from India's Bihar state after partition in 1947. East Pakistan won independence as Bangladesh in 1971.

The army-backed interim government has pledged to hold a credible election by the end of 2008 after preparing a digital voter list with photographs.

The Bangladesh election commission has begun a digital process of voter registration, and has said the final electoral roll would be published in October next year.

Biharis sided with Pakistan occupation forces during Bangladesh's liberation war, hoping that Pakistan would repatriate them to that country.

But after allowing back 127,000 Biharis, Islamabad declined to take back the remaining 300,000. While older Biharis still hope that Pakistan will eventually accept them back, the younger ones say they want to live in Bangladesh by right.

''We are not Pakistanis, we are now Urdu-speaking Bangladeshis,'' Sahid Ali Babul, general secretary of Stranded Pakistanis Youth Rehabilitation Movement, told a seminar, attended by leaders of civic societies and rights groups.

''So we should be enlisted in the new voters' list and be given nationality, since we were born here.'' Inclusion of someone on the electoral roll would mean giving him nationality, election commission officials said.

The exact number of youths eligible for inclusion was unclear as stranded Pakistanis are scattered in several cities and towns.

''We are living in subhuman conditions with discrimination in every sector,'' Babul said. ''We are deprived of jobs, food, shelter and even health care.'' Humanitarian groups, including the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and Actionaid supported the stranded Pakistanis demand.

''They are not Pakistanis, but Urdu-speaking stateless people,'' Pia Prytz Phiri, Bangladesh representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters.

Reuters>