Seventy years ago, a large number of innocent and ordinary citizens of pre-partition Punjab were forced by the history of the day and the drawn sword of communal frenzy to flee their ancestral homes and hearths and cover hundreds of miles of distance fraught with death and disaster on every step to find shelter. Somehow and unwittingly they strayed into the Jammu region of the J&K State where the law of state subject remained enforced strictly. They escaped the icy hand of death and did not know where to go and hide their heads. Some of them took the road to Indian part of Punjab and to Delhi, the more unfortunate headed towards the J&K State prompted either by the presence of some relatives in Jammu region who might be of some help at a critical time or unable to travel to far off distances with old and infirm parents and family members. They sought refuge in Jammu region.
Rehabilitation of West Pakistan (WP) refugees and issuance of domicile/ permanent residential certificates after seventy years of displacement is somewhat irksome for the Government of J&K. Its argument for not according state domicile status to these people is that we have the State Subject Law in place and these refugees are unable to produce convincing proof of their original domicile in the erstwhile State of the Maharajas of J&K. Instead, the J&K Government has expressed willingness to issue them identity cards. This is rather a contentious issue and has the pros and cons attached to it. We cannot deny that the State Subject law is alive in letter and spirit and should not be eroded. As such, these refugees are required to produce convincing evidence of them being the permanent residents of the State. However, the other side of the issue is just common sense. Those who really were the residents of the State of J&K had to leave their homes and hearths in war-like conditions when the swords of the tribesmen were drawn to sever the head of every refugee of the minority community. How could they find time and space to collect and preserve their documents and other precious things and move to safer places? Secondly, it is more than seventy years that they have been living as a community without land, without job, without identity and without all those rights enjoyed by their neighbours. This is a human problem. Now the Government spokesman has made a statement claiming that the Government would be issuing identity cards to them which does not mean that the card holders will automatically become entitled to state subject status or competent to apply for a Government job. No, that is not the case; it is in fulfillment of the wishes of the Centre that identity cards are going to be issued to these refugees. That is only partial solution to the problem; it does not give them the right to vote, to be appointed to a civil or military job or to purchase land or to own a shop. In this way the identity card is only eye-wash and nothing more tangibly.
Humanism and Kashmiriyat, which induce us to be humanists, are touted as special values that must come to the rescue of these unfortunate people. If militants, who actually are seditionists against the State, can be absolved of their crime by the J&K Government under one or the other law, why should not the same Government use identical ingenuity in bringing about legislation that provides relief to the almost abandoned community of WPRs. The important point is that they did not come out of their free choice; they were not only under compulsion but also under the threat of life as hundreds of thousands were butchered in cold blood during the aftermath of partition. They are entitled to the benefits of the law of necessity. The clarification given by the Education Minister and the spokesman of the Government is all right as far as its political nuances are concerned, but beyond that the humanistic aspect of the case is highly justifiable and the Government should focus on that. The State Government shall have to own them because that is the verdict of history, reality and logic all combined together.
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