The curious case of Mr Barrett

There are so many questions surrounding the detention of an American citizen named Matthew Craig Barrett, a man blacklisted from entry to Pakistan, that it is difficult to know where to begin — but perhaps Houston, Texas would be a good place to start. It was the Pakistani consulate in Houston that issued Mr Barrett with his visa for four years with multiple entry. He is married to a Pakistan national and they have two children. He was expelled in circumstances that are yet unclear in 2011, having allegedly been found to have taken photographs of ‘sensitive installations’ in the Jhang Bhattar area, close to Islamabad. He has no connection with the American embassy and nobody is so far saying that he was involved in espionage or was in the employ of the CIA either, overtly or covertly.

Quite why he was issued a four-year visa by Houston and that too within 48 hours despite being blacklisted is a mystery. Presumably, our overseas missions have lists of those blacklisted and that would quickly tag them if they applied to re-enter. Visa duly refused — or granted as in this instance. Moving to immigration at Islamabad, once again the system seems to have been blind to Mr Barrett’s status and he passed through — only to be detected when a ‘deeper level’ was accessed identifying him as blacklisted and he was duly arrested. Given the levels of paranoia and suspicion that surround virtually any foreigner in Pakistan today, it is best not to jump to any conclusions. There is no evidence that he is seeking to enter Pakistan for nefarious reasons, and having a Pakistani wife and children does add some credibility to his claim to have been here to investigate the possibility of him and his family to move back here and live on a permanent basis. Despite this, there are concerns about his past behaviour here — why would he take pictures as alleged, particularly as foreigners living here have very high levels of awareness as to where and where not they are allowed to travel — and take photographs. A little less mystery and a lot more information, please.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2016.

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