Repatriation process: Bin Laden family’s deportation delayed
NCMC wants to keep them for further investigations.
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan continued to mull over plans to deport al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s family on Friday after the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) expressed reservations on the family’s deportation to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, saying that they want to keep them in Pakistan for further investigations.
“We should not deport al Qaeda chief’s family members, we want to keep them for further investigation,” a senior official said quoting the NCMC director general Brig (retd) Javed Lodhi who earlier briefed Interior Minister Rehman Malik, along with Director General of Federal Investigation Agency Javed Iqbal, in a meeting held at the interior ministry today. Pakistan fears that the outspokenness of the Yemeni widow of Osama would create problems for the state, according to the head of NCMC, who attended an important meeting at GHQ and briefed intelligence officials about the issue earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the interior minister directed Islamabad Chief Commissioner Bani Amin Khan to visit OBL’s family members along with a female police officer to take their consent regarding which country they want to live in. He also directed Khan to ask whether they want to live in Pakistan.
Malik also directed the Interior Secretary Siddiq-e-Akbar to contact the ministry of foreign affairs regarding consent of the respective countries for accepting OBL’s family. “The interior minister desired that the process of deportation of OBL’s family should be completed under existing rules and regulations,” said an official statement issued on Friday.
“Pakistan seems reluctant to deport al Qaeda founder’s family for the time being,” said Atif Ali Khan, counsel for OBL’s family, adding that the Foreign Office and interior ministry are not issuing a no objection certificate to the family members, a move which could lead them to leave for their homelands.
Interior Secretary Siddiq-e-Akbar told The Express Tribune that there were no developments on the deportation of former al Qaeda chief’s family so far.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2012.
Pakistan continued to mull over plans to deport al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s family on Friday after the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) expressed reservations on the family’s deportation to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, saying that they want to keep them in Pakistan for further investigations.
“We should not deport al Qaeda chief’s family members, we want to keep them for further investigation,” a senior official said quoting the NCMC director general Brig (retd) Javed Lodhi who earlier briefed Interior Minister Rehman Malik, along with Director General of Federal Investigation Agency Javed Iqbal, in a meeting held at the interior ministry today. Pakistan fears that the outspokenness of the Yemeni widow of Osama would create problems for the state, according to the head of NCMC, who attended an important meeting at GHQ and briefed intelligence officials about the issue earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the interior minister directed Islamabad Chief Commissioner Bani Amin Khan to visit OBL’s family members along with a female police officer to take their consent regarding which country they want to live in. He also directed Khan to ask whether they want to live in Pakistan.
Malik also directed the Interior Secretary Siddiq-e-Akbar to contact the ministry of foreign affairs regarding consent of the respective countries for accepting OBL’s family. “The interior minister desired that the process of deportation of OBL’s family should be completed under existing rules and regulations,” said an official statement issued on Friday.
“Pakistan seems reluctant to deport al Qaeda founder’s family for the time being,” said Atif Ali Khan, counsel for OBL’s family, adding that the Foreign Office and interior ministry are not issuing a no objection certificate to the family members, a move which could lead them to leave for their homelands.
Interior Secretary Siddiq-e-Akbar told The Express Tribune that there were no developments on the deportation of former al Qaeda chief’s family so far.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 21st, 2012.