Ministry to secure release of Pakistanis locked up in Yemen

Counsel says the prisoners’ lives are in eminent danger.

KARACHI: The foreign affairs ministry was directed to make sure that the 70 Pakistanis locked up in Yemen are freed immediately.

On Friday, the Sindh High Court’s Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi rejected a ministry report submitted in a petition filed by the Human Rights and Civil Liberties Society of Pakistan.

The petition is seeking the repatriation of Pakistanis whose “life is in imminent danger” in Yemen.

The report stated that US$30,000 have been sent to the Pakistan High Commission in Yemen to pay for legal assistance. These findings were, however, disputed by the NGO’s lawyer Nisar Mujahid. He said that only $20,000 were sent and even this money had not been used till now.

He maintained that 15 Pakistanis have already been killed by Yemen police “execution style”. The government and its diplomats at Pakistani missions abroad are using their postings for personal gains and are failing to perform their duties as envoys. “We had 18 Pakistanis released in October 2010 but around 70 are still languishing in different jails of Yemen.”

Mujahid said that 20 Pakistanis are imprisoned at the Central Prison of Sanaa, capital of Yemen, five are detained in al Mansoora prison, Aden and another 30 are kept at al Mahra Central prison.

Pakistan’s ambassador in Yemen is the main obstacle, alleged the lawyer.

Ahmed Ali Sirohey, former deputy high commissioner who helped free 18 Pakistanis earlier, was punished and transferred to Nigeria, he submitted, adding that Prof Dr Khawaja Syed Al-Qana, has been posted as the high commissioner to Yemen because he was said to be close to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

The bench then rejected the ministry’s reply, calling it “unsatisfactory”, and directed it to take “immediate and effective measures to secure the release of the Pakistani prisoners”. The hearing was adjourned to a date to be fixed later by the office of the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.