Bagram prisoners: LHC tells ministry to write letter to US

‘Fate of detainees uncertain as US will hand control of jails to Afghan govt’.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write a “clear-cut letter” to the US government seeking an explanation for the arrest of Pakistani citizens and their detention at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan.

The court also ordered the ministry to ask what crimes the detained Pakistanis had been charged with, and if they hadn’t been charged with anything, to ask that they be released and returned to Pakistan.

Justice Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Khan said during proceedings that Pakistani citizens had been picked up in Pakistan and illegally rendered to Bagram. He said they were innocent victims of the war on terror.

A deputy attorney general submitted that since the last order of the court, a committee had been formed and diplomatic channels had been opened on the matter. The judge, however, observed that the report filed by the ministry showed that the diplomatic negotiations had been cursory at best.

The judge directed the ministry to write to the US government demanding information about all Pakistani citizens detained at Bagram, failing which he would consider no action to have been taken.

Barrister Sarah Belal, the petitioner’s counsel, told the court that under a new agreement between the US and Afghan governments, the United States had pledged to hand over all detention facilities in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities within six months. She said the agreement made no mention of third country nationals being held at US detention facilities. Consequently, the future of any Pakistani at Bagram was “uncertain at best” and “they might well disappear” if no action was taken by the Pakistani government within the next six months, she added.

The judge adjourned the hearing till April 25 and directed the law officer to ensure compliance with court orders.

Petitioner Sultana Noon, representative of non-profit law firm Justice Project Pakistan and a fellow of Reprieve (a UK-based organisation) in Pakistan, has submitted that seven Pakistanis had been detained at Bagram jail without any charge or trial since 2003. She said they were abducted from Pakistan and shifted to the US prison in Afghanistan.

The seven are Awwal Khan, Hamidullah Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Fazal Karim, Amal Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad and Younas Rehmatullah.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2012.