Illegal detention: Bagram detainees petition set for Tuesday hearing

Maryam Haq counsel at the JPP says the lack of transparency cannot be tolerated.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) will hear a petition against the illegal detention of 34 Pakistani citizens in United States-administered Bagram prison on February 25.

Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) had submitted an application requesting the court to direct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to release details of repatriation of the 34 Pakistani citizens in Bagram prison. JPP is representing the families of the Pakistani detainees.

In November 2013, six Pakistanis citizens were released from Bagram and were handed over to Pakistani authorities.

Details of their repatriation were withheld by the Pakistan government from the court, their families and their lawyers.

A statement of the JPP said the men were held without charge at an undisclosed location and had been treated harshly.

“It was through the efforts of the JPP and the Lahore High Court that the whereabouts of these men were disclosed and their families given access to them,” the statement said.

The JPP has now requested the court to direct the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide names of Pakistanis detainees due to be released in the next tranche.

It has also demanded that the ministry inform the court when detainees were repatriated in the future.

Maryam Haq, counsel at the JPP, said, “The lack of transparency with which the government handled the previous tranche cannot be tolerated.

The government must stop playing these games and show that they are serious about upholding constitutional rights of these citizens and ending their ongoing misery.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.