Guantánamo detainees: Inter-ministerial committee fails to hold first meeting

Body was formed to examine issue of Pakistanis still detained at US base

ISLAMABAD:

An inter-ministerial committee formed in May 2014 under the Ministry of Interior to examine the issue of prisoners still kept in detention at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has never met, a ministry official informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday.

The reply came in response to directions issued at the last hearing, where government officials were asked to inform the court about steps taken by the committee on the matter so far.

Through the state counsel, a deputy secretary of the ministry informed the court that the committee was expected to conduct its first meeting next month.

Petitioner Mohammad Shafi’s counsel Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who has constantly accused the committee of being a mere “smoke screen”, apprised the court that individuals have been kept under detention at the US prison for the last 16 years, and the committee had yet to hold a meeting over the issue.



Shafi’s brother-in-law Mohammad Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani was picked up by a Pakistani intelligence agency from Karachi in December 2001, subjected to physical torture and later handed over to the US authorities without any charges or right to defend himself in January 2002, the petitioner has stated before the court.

Akbar said the ground reality was that the committee had made no contact with family members of any of the Pakistani detainees. He was of the view that even the first meeting that was scheduled to take place next month was being organised after the matter was brought before the court.

“It’s not enough just to form a committee,” remarked acting Chief Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi. “People come to courts when committees don’t work,” he said.

The justice asked the state counsel what the committee would do in its first meeting.

The state counsel requested the court to grant time for submitting a reply about the agenda of the first meeting.

While accepting his request, the division bench comprising Justice Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq directed him to submit a reply in two weeks.

Akbar has stated in his petition that a report released by the US Senate Committee on Intelligence in December 2014 concluded that Rabbani was taken by the CIA on a mistaken identity.

He said Rabbani was mistaken for a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, Hassan Gul.

Akbar requested the court not to decide the case till the repatriation of the prisoner, and a monthly progress report should also be sought from the committee on the issue.

Shafi has challenged the June 18 order of the IHC’s single bench dismissing previous petition on grounds that it was not maintainable.

In the intra-court appeal, Akbar requested the court to set aside the single bench’s order arguing the court failed to exercise its jurisdiction properly, acted beyond the scope of jurisdiction vested by the law and misread the parties’ pleadings.

In August 2003, Rabbani was transferred to Bagram prison from Pakistan, and was subjected to cruel treatment there too, Akbar states in his petition. In January 2004, Rabbani was shifted to the Guantanamo Bay, where he continues to be treated terribly till date, the petition states.

The ministries of interior, defence, foreign affairs and former president Pervez Musharraf have been made respondents in the case.

The petitioner has requested the court to order the respondents to make immediate arrangements for Rabbani’s repatriation back to the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2015.