JEDDAH — Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) announced the appointment of its new office bearers in a meeting held at the residence of PRC Convener Syed Ehsanul Haque recently. The new team comprises Syed Ehsanul Haque, convener, Hamid Islam Khan, deputy convener, Dr. Irfan Hashmi, senior vice president, Syed Mahmoud Akhtar, vice president, Syed Mussarat Khalil, general secretary, Syed Shehabuddin, deputy general secretary, Mohammad Amanatullah, press and publication secretary, Syed Ghazanfar Hassan, joint secretary, and Naushad Usman, social secretary. An advisory board was also formed headed by Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef with Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi and Aftab Hussain. Shamsuddin Altaf, Choudhry M. Riaz Grumman and M. Ashfaque Badayuni as members. During the meeting members also paid homage to the renowned poet, columnist, scholar and creator of name "PRC" Nawabzada Mirza Jamil uddin Ahmed Khan better known as Jamil uddin Aali recipient of Pride of Performance (PP) and Hilal-e-Imtiaz (HI) or Aaliji. Aali passed away in Karachi recently. Others who attended the condolence reference were Shahid Naeem, Zamurrad Saifi, Dr. Zubair Ahmed, Mohammad Moiz uddin, Syed Naseeruddin, Khalid Jawaid, Syed Qamar Shah, Qazi Pervez, Altafur Rahman and Mohammad Akram Agha. Haque congratulated the new office bearers and paid homage to Jamil uddin Aali. He said Aaliji wrote several articles to highlight the miseries of those Pakistanis and in one of the article titled "Do we prefer to call ourselves careless nation" by denying the right of citizenship of stranded Pakistanis. He challenged anyone who sought to deny their rights to come and debate with him at any platform. He also wrote the preface article for PRC magazine "Hisar". Haque added Aaliji was also admirer of SPGRC founder late Naseem Khan. In his column he also praised late Majeed Nizami for creating special fund (Nawai Waqt fund) for alleviating the miseries of stranded Pakistanis in camps. According to Haque, Aaliji also presided over two seminars in Karachi organized by PRC in which he not only asked the president and prime minister of Pakistan, but also the chief minister of Punjab, to arrange for the rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis in Punjab as per the mandate of Rabita Trust which had mandate for arranging the necessary fund. Hamid ul Islam said Aaliji always praised the role of Muslim World League (MWL) in extending financial support for their settlement under the Rabita Trust fund a joint venture project of MWL and government of Pakistan. Senior community member Aziz Ahmed shed light on theh great contribution of Aaliji towards the cause of patriotic Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh. He said he attended twice PRC's events in Jeddah in 1994 and 1995 in which he urged the government of Pakistan to take concrete measures for the repatriation and rehabilitation of stranded Pakistanis from Bangladesh. Qari Abdul Majeed made special supplication for Allah's mercy, blessing, forgiveness and place in Jannah for the late Jamil uddin Aali.
