Pakistan: The unwanted refugees

At Damascus International Airport Hotel and Casino, close to the airport of the Syrian capital, the roulette table is laid out with chips again after gathering dust for months. The strict police cordon, which used to scare off the unwary reveller, is lifted. Gone is the hotel's fortress-like look, and it is business as usual.Not so for the 10 remaining Pakistani political prisoners of the group of 54 who were released from General Zia-ul Haq's prisons on March 14, herded into a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 707, flown to Damascus and put up in the hotel. Forty-four of them have been granted asylum in Afghanistan, Libya and the United Kingdom since then.But 10 prisoners are still lodged in the hotel behind a tight screen of secrecy, although the general restrictions on the hotel have been relaxed. Among the prisoners are Dr Ghulam Hussein, 45, secretary-general of the Pakistan People's Party, Raja Mohammed Afzal, 38, former member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, Leiutenant-Commander (retired) Munir A. Varraich, 36, and Wahab Siddiqui, 39, editor of the Urdu weekly Al-Fatah.The release of the 54 men from Zia's dungeons at Attock Fort and Lahore Fort, fitted out with Gestapo-style torture chambers, as well as prisons at Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Lahore City, was secured in exchange for the hijacked passengers of a domestic PIA flight bound for Peshawar.(From left) Hussein, Afzal, Varraicb, and Siddiqui: pawns in the hand of an administration trying to wriggle out of a ticklish situationThe hijackers, a group of Karachi students owing allegiance to Murtaza Ali Bhutto, the elder son of the assassinated Pakistani president, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had forced the plane to fly to Kabul. The 12-day negotiation cliff-hanger enacted there forced Zia to release the prisoners.However, in the deal that was struck between the hijackers, the Pakistan Government and representatives of the Syrian Government, it was decided that the prisoners would be handed over to the Syrian Government at Aleppo Airport. From there, they were supposed to be flown to Tripoli in Libya and given over to the Libyan authorities for final resettlement.Political Asylum:Accordingly, the prisoners were brought from Karachi to Aleppo and were shifted to a Syrian Airline plane which took them to Tripoli. But the Libyan authorities refused them permission to land, and the plane flew back to Damascus via Athens where it briefly stopped over for refuelling. Once back in Syria, they were put under the "protective custody" of the Syrian Government, ostensibly to save their lives from the "hired assassins" of Zia.Since then, 27 of them have been shifted to Afghanistan where the Kabul authorities granted them political asylum. Two others, Sardar Mazher Ali and Sami Munir, were able to get asylum in the United Kingdom and Lebanon respectively.Altaf Abbassi, a Kashmiri who is a British national, had no problem in getting his passport pack. Subsequently, on a request by the Syrian authorities, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) intervened to get 14 others resettled in Libya. For the remaining 10, the end of the tunnel is not yet in sight.However, the UNHCR has now declared all the 24 as "political refugees" and is trying to arrange their asylum in France and Canada. Earlier, the United Kingdom. West Germany, Sweden and Holland had expressed their inability to grant them political asylum. These countries argued that "in considering any application for asylum we should have regard to the fact that their release from prisons in Pakistan was secured by an act of terrorism".In Damascus, the prisoners are denied freedom of movement, though they are not badly looked after. The hotel charges, about Rs 400 per person per day including food, are paid by the Syrian Government. In addition, they are given clothes and miscellaneous expenses of about Rs 800 per month.Restive Prisoners: Nevertheless, armed security personnel follow the prisoners wherever they go - be it a shrine, a theatre or a library. The reason given by the Syrian authorities is obviously related to the security of the prisoners. But that lowers their actual status far below that of refugees because the latter, as a rule, would be free to move about.The prisoners are restive. They are anxious to move out of their captivity, to live freely in any country that will accept them. Though they are still hoping that the UNHCR will ultimately be able to find some way for rehabilitating them, the odds are stacked against them. Zia : getting rid of 'bad' applesThe Western countries, for that matter, are taking an increasingly rigid stand regarding the PIA hijacking episode and the alleged hand of Afghanistan behind it. "There is little chance of our finding asylum in the West." said one of the prisoners.However, the prisoners make one point forcefully: they were not exiled by the Pakistan authorities because no legal, administrative or military orders were given to that effect. They also deny having any contact with 'Al Zulfiqar' - the clandestine organisation led by Bhutto which was instrumental in securing their release from Zia's prisons.Said one prisoner: "They are unknown people, as far as we are concerned. We gave it in writing to the Zia Administration that we would not move out of the soil of Pakistan. What can we do if we become pawns in the hands of an administration trying to wriggle out of a ticklish situation?"The aftermath of the hijacking, however, has benefited Zia more than anyone else. The majority of the original 54 prisoners were under trial in different military courts of Pakistan and hardly any charge could be proved against them. Their exit from Pakistan saved the Zia Administration the embarrassment of having to acquit them eventually.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 12, 2013 08:54 IST--- ENDS ---

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Pakistan: The unwanted refugees

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