Brown may visit Islamabad to defuse row over students

LONDON: An embarrassed British government looking for ways to remove what is seen here as a ‘misunderstanding’ on the part of Islamabad by the high-profile arrest and then release of 12 innocent Pakistanis is said to have decided to contact Pakistan at the highest level to explain its position and seek understanding.

Diplomatic circles here did not rule out the possibility of Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself undertaking a trip to Islamabad soon for the purpose.

Informed sources said that in case such a trip materialised, Pakistan would like Britain to sign a joint declaration promising never ever to demonise Pakistani students studying in the UK or Pakistanis entering the country on a short trip or those British citizens who have Pakistani roots by arresting them or interrogating them without actionable evidence.

They said Pakistan would also like the joint declaration to mention that in case there was some concrete evidence of involvement of Pakistanis and British citizens of Pakistani origin in crimes of terrorism or any other serious misdemeanour the two countries would immediately share information and make joint investigations.

Pakistan is said to have become too sensitive about such arrests and interrogations and has lost patience with such tactics of the British police as only on April 15, brother-in-law of President Asif Zardari, MNA Munawar Ali Talpur, was detained for about 90 minutes at the airport on his arrival from Pakistan and questioned about his alleged links with the Baloch separatists.

In the summer of 2007, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, younger brother of former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his two nephews who were going to Islamabad from Barcelona via London were detained at the airport for almost 48 hours, stripped and questioned on suspicion of being involved in a terrorist plot unearthed in Spain.

The Pakistan High Commission in the UK seems to have become doubly suspicious of the tactics of the Home Office here because right at the time when the British media was playing up the arrest of the 11 Pakistani students and the Home Office had refused to share any information about the arrest with the government of Pakistan, the HO presented to Pakistan a draft of an MoU to sign under which the UK government was to have the right to deport any Pakistani on the grounds that he had become a threat to the national security, without having to follow the laid down legal procedure.

‘Perhaps realising that they had bungled but determined to save face by deporting the arrested students without having to go through the time- consuming legal deportation process, the HO came up with the idea of the MoU thinking that an under pressure Pakistan government would readily sign it,’ said Sibghatullah Kadri QC, a British lawyer of Pakistani origin.

He said that Pakistani High Commissioner Wahid Shamsul Hasan, who was in Pakistan at that time, put his foot down and advised the government not to accept the MoU and he also asked the HC visa office here not to issue visa to the four HO officials who were all set to go to Pakistan with the draft of the MoU and get their friend Rehman Malik to sign it.

The MoU also had a business angle to it. While the income in millions of educational institutions from fees and that of the Home Office from visa charges were protected by not scrutinising the admission and visa applications for non-genuine cases, the HO wanted the right under the MoU to deport these very people after having fleeced without following the laid down procedure.

Mr Kadri likened it to daylight robbery. He believes that once the students go into appeal against their deportation, they would either be given bail after the first hearing or if the HO opposed they would remain under detention while the cases would be processed which in his opinion would take at least two to three years to reach conclusion.

He thought they would all get bail and those whose examinations are about to begin would be able to appear in their exams.

‘One or two students perhaps may feel too terrified to remain in the UK even for one more day. Perhaps they would like to go back to the safety of their homes as soon as possible. Their cases will have to be handled with extra care because I would not like them to go back carrying the stigma of deportation.’ he added.

Meanwhile, according to a High Commission press release, Mr Wajid Shamsul Hasan called on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on Thursday and discussed the issue of release of students after the British authorities dropped charges under the Terrorism Act. link...