Confusion prevails over exact number of West Pak refugees

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 20

Although the Centre has initiated the process to disburse financial assistance to West Pakistani refugees, confusion still prevails over the exact number of refugee families camping in Jammu since 1947.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Jammu on June 8, had announced that financial assistance would be given to 5,764 West Pakistani refugee families, but his figures were strongly contradicted by leaders of these “stateless” refugees, who have conducted a village-to-village survey in different areas of Jammu province to get the exact number of the refugee families.

“As per our record, there are 19,960 refugee families and we have already sent a representation to the Union Government to provide financial assistance to all of them,” said Labha Ram Gandhi, chairman of the West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee (WPRAC).

After Rajnath Singh’s announcement on June 8, representatives of West Pakistani refugees had approached the Ministry of Home Affairs to contradict the figures in the record of the Union Ministry.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, in its letter number dated June 13, 2018, asked the Chief Secretary of J&K Government to submit complete details of the West Pakistani refugees living in the state since 1947.

The Union Home Ministry has forwarded a list of refugee families to the Chief Secretary, which was prepared by the WPRAC to incorporate the left out families in the list of beneficiaries.

Keeping in view the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Centre is in a hurry to placate these “annoyed” refugees, who can play a crucial role in deciding the fate of candidates in the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituencies of Jammu province. It was all due to support of these refugees that the BJP had a comfortable victory on these two Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

According to an official handout, the Centre has approved financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakh per family to West Pakistani refugees. As many as 5,764 families of West Pakistan refugees settled in Jammu and Kashmir will be benefited from the decision. An amount of Rs 5.5 lakh per family will be deposited in the bank accounts of eligible beneficiaries based on authentication by the J&K Government. For its smooth implementation, the state government will also appoint a nodal officer.

Deprived of permanent resident rights 

• Over 1.5 lakh West Pakistani refugees have been living in different camps since 1947 after being dislocated from Sialkot and other areas now part of Pakistan
• They have been struggling to get constitutional rights as they are deprived of permanent resident certificates
• Article 35A deprives the refugees of the rights that other citizens of Jammu and Kashmir enjoy
•  As per the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, only those who were living in the state before or on May 14, 1944, are entitled to the permanent resident certificate