Pakistanis in Bagram: LHC orders ministry to help repatriate 37 prisoners

Reprimands foreign ministry for delaying issue in spite of jail being handed over by US to Afghan authorities.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) directed the foreign ministry on Tuesday to take effective steps to bring back 37 Pakistani prisoners languishing in Afghanistan’s notorious Bagram prison.

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan reprimanded the counsel for the ministry when he requested the court for more time to do the needful. The judge remarked that several such requests had been made but there was nothing to show for it.

Sara Bilal, counsel for the prisoners, submitted a draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before the court hands it over to the ministry. The MoU ensures that both the US and Pakistan governments agree to securely transfer Pakistani detainees at Bagram back to Pakistan through a peaceful and diplomatic approach. She said the MoU was drafted along the lines of one signed between the Afghan and US governments for transferring the custody of over 3,000 Afghan detainees and added that it would be deplorable if Pakistan was unable to do the same for 37 prisoners detained illegally for years.

Bilal argued that with the US handover of Bagram prison to Afghan authorities in place, the fate of the 50 non-Afghan prisoners held there has become an even more pressing issue. She added, “The next few months are critical to ensure Pakistani citizens are not left in indefinite detention in the legal black hole of Bagram. Yet the government, which is supposed to defend its citizens, is instead wasting time by filing meaningless reports and failing to make real progress. It is urgent they take real action now – otherwise they risk being caught up in serious breaches of domestic and international law.”

The court was holding proceedings on a petition filed by Sultana Noon, a representative of the non-profit law firm Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a partner of Reprieve (a UK-based organisation) in Pakistan. Initially the petition was filed for seven Pakistanis prisoners. Later it was revealed that several other Pakistanis were also detained at the jail.

The petitioner submitted that the citizens had been detained at Bagram without any charge or trial since 2003. She alleged they were abducted from Pakistan and shifted to the prison.

The seven prisoners mentioned in the JPP petition are Awal Noor, Hamidullah Khan, Abdul Haleem Saifullah, Faizal Karim, Amal Khan, Yunus Rahmatullah and Iftikhar Ahmed.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2012.