British judges on Wednesday gave the government four weeks to obtain the release of a Pakistani man held in US custody in Afghanistan, a ruling that could make for prickly discussions between British officials and their American counterparts, The Associated Press reported.
The ruling comes nearly a week after the UK-legal charity Reprieve won its habeas corpus petition claiming that Yunus Rahmatullah’s detention lacked sufficient cause or evidence, and that British forces violated international law when they handed him over to American troops nearly eight years ago.
British Appeals Court justices said the British government has until Jan 18 to obtain freedom for Rahmatullah, accused of being a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba. The appeals court order is final meaning that Rahmatullah must be released.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2011.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1713264570-0/Tribune-Collage-Feature-Images-(9)1713264570-0-270x192.webp)
@Mirza: The institutions such as judiciary in the west draw their strength from the fact that their verdicts and orders are respected. What is happening in Pakistan? The Government is ever dragging its feet in compliance to SC verdicts. Take the examples of steel mills case and so many others where the officials appointed by the SC were not allowed to work or transferred.
Even the lower courts of UK are more independent than our PCO SC. Never in the history of Pakistan their SC dared give a verdict against the generals. It is time to learn and be bold and fair.