Other Pakistan : Free the Pakistani Students Campaign

Friday, May 01, 2009

Free the Pakistani Students Campaign

May 1, 2009

Today I have launched a campaign to free the Pakistani students detained in the UK awaiting deportation on national security grounds. The campaign has a dedicated page as above and will include regular updates. The campaign has begun well and I am contacting British politicians to win their support and the British media to secure coverage on this key issue.

I request Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis to help in any way possible be it by passing on this post or website, speaking to a politician or a media contact or posting this post on your facebook page so the campaign can get the support and coverage it needs and deserves. For Facebook users please do attend the Free Pakistani Students Campaign Launch event via link here and send invitations to others and become a fan of Other Pakistan so you can be updated on progress.

Free the Pakistani Students

The ‘Free the Pakistani Students’ campaign led by Wasim Arif seeks the release of the ten Pakistani students who are under detention and to be deported from the UK on national security grounds. It seems that ‘Operation Pathway’ has become ‘Operation Persecute Pakistanis’ given that all ten Pakistani national students were released without charge, yet all have not been allowed to resume their studies. Worse the students have been detained awaiting deportation on a pack of lies it stands to reason given that the police did not charge a single student.

A press release issued by a lawyer for the students Amjad Malik sets out the background and legal position, and is shown below:

Press Note: Detained Pakistani Students at Manchester

I was asked by Pakistan High Commisison to represent 4 out of 10 Pakistani national students currently detained at Manchester prison who are threatened of deportation on national security grounds.

They are being deported on grounds of posing threat to national security of UK as being concerned in islamic extremist activities and for the reason that they were investigated under terrorism Act 2000 since 8 april 2009. Though no charges were brought under criminal proceedings and on 21 April, they were released from criminal invetigation to UK Border Agency who initiated immigration deportation proceedings.

If they choose to appeal their deportation orders, they will have a free standing right of appeal before ‘Special Immigration Appeals Commission’ which was set up under SIAC Act 1997.

I can confirm that legal team along with Pakistani Consul General Mr. Masroor Junejo and Welfare Attache Mr. Amir Nisar Ch met all detained students at Manchester namely; Mr. Shoiab Khan, Abdul Wahab Khan, Tariq Ur Rehman and Abid Naseer who all are well and instructed Amjad Malik, a Supreme Court Solicitor-Advocate and life member of SCBA (Pakistan) to file their appeals which have been lodged with the required court with effect from 28 April 2009.

Appeals are lodged on the grounds that:

a. That appellants are racially discriminated being Pakistani nationals and being Muslims; and That it would be against appellant’s rights under ECHR for UK to remove or deport the appellant from the United Kingdom because of that decision under the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 (Art.3,5,6, 8,9,10,14);

b. That the appellant appeals to SIAC on the following general grounds;That Home Secretary has not put forward any concrete evidence in her contention that the appellants are a threat to ‘national security’ of the UK; and or even if there is any reason to support that contention, the proper course of action would be to charge the appellant and brought them before the court of law in a criminal proceedings, but such proceedings has never been ensued and no charges were put forward by the CPS; Therefore it is appellants case on the limited information available to their defence that there is no evidence to support any charges and the arrest, detention and continuing incarceration is unlawful, and unreasonable; and without any substance;

c. That the appellant has been subjected to a one sided media trial at that time appellants were incommunicado without a lawyer, consulate access and without a phone call to their family;

d. That, in the circumstances appellant feels that they have been made a scapegoat and immigration decision is but an effort to avoid answers to questions on the failure of the operation ‘pathway’ in order to divert attention from their innocence as the appellant feel that they are ‘innocent’ until ‘proven guilty’ by a court of law.

First hearing of all 10 students appeal is likely to be set in first 2 weeks of May.

All 4 students are kept in highly secure ‘category A’ at Manchester prison on the orders of UK Border Agency.

Our first priority was to ensure that their appeals are lodged in time. Further matters of their case progress & strategy will be decided in next week by a panel of eminent lawyers in consultation with all stake holders including their bail application(s) which are likely to be heard in the 2nd week of May 09.

Amjad Malik

Solicitor-Advocate

Manchester

The ‘Free the Pakistani Students’ campaign has one demand that the Pakistani students are released and allowed to continue their studies. Furthermore it is our view that in the best interests of good community relations and more importantly good old British justice and fair play it is requested that the students are either released or charged to face a court of law. The present position of the UK government smacks of a disdain for fair play and justice and is not conducive to good community relations with a Pakistani community that increasingly feels under pressure nationally and internationally.

Guardian : G20 protests: Met police accused of misleading watchdog

Friday, May 01, 2009

G20 protests: Met police accused of misleading watchdog

by Paul Lewis and Matthew Taylor | May 1, 2009

Scotland Yard was accused of misleading its own watchdog last night after an official report on the policing of the G20 London protests was said to contain "false claims" and "gross inaccuracies".

The document, submitted to a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority yesterday, set out the police version of events during the demonstrations last month, and included claims protesters and independent observers said were misleading.

The Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, David Howarth, said the report was "full of serious inaccuracies" and questioned its claim that protesters were free to leave police cordons on the streets.

The controversial use of cordons to "kettle", or corral, people at the rally is under review by Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary.

The report stated that "whenever possible, people were allowed to leave the cordon" around the Bank of England and the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate. But accounts from hundreds of people caught inside the pens for hours indicated police refused people permission to leave.

The author of the report, assistant commissioner Chris Allison, defended the tactics of containment, telling the MPA that penning protesters, rather than dispersing them, was effective in reducing violence. But the MPA unanimously agreed to examine kettling and other public-order police tactics, in its civil liberties panel.

Other alleged inaccuracies in the Met's report included the claim that the Bishopsgate Climate Camp had blocked a "four-lane highway", and that police had supplied water to penned people.

The report also said Climate Camp protesters had "refused to divulge their plans" at a meeting with senior officers on the eve of the rally. Howarth, who mediated the meeting, said protesters had been constructive in attempts to liaise with the police. "It is time for the spinning to stop and for senior officers to ... take responsibility," Howarth said.

The report also said the Met was cooperating with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating a complaint relating to an alleged assault of a 22-year-old woman on 1 April. The IPCC has received 256 complaints relating to G20 demonstrations.

In a statement last night, the Met said: "Wherever operationally possible people were allowed out of the containment." It conceded that the Climate Camp had been set-up in a two-lane road, but said traffic had been impacted further south.

Regarding water supplies, the Met said: "Officers gave people water but kept the bottles so they could not be thrown ... Six toilets were deployed by the local authority at the request of police; these contained drinkable running water."

APP : Appeal against deportation filed by detained Pak students

Friday, May 01, 2009

Appeal against deportation filed by detained Pak students

May 1, 2009

LONDON, May 1 (APP)-Four out of the ten Pakistani students arrested on terrorism suspicion by the British authorities last month and subsequently released after the charges were dropped, have now filed appeal against their deportation.

This was stated by lawyer Amjad Malik who was asked by Pakistan High Commission to represent 4 out of 10 Pakistani national students currently detained at Manchester prison and awaiting deportation on national security grounds.

The first hearing of all 10 students appeal is likely to be set in first two weeks of the current month. The four students are kept in highly secure “category A” at Manchester prison on the orders of UK Border Agency.

Malik said that legal team along with Pakistani Consul General in Manchester Masroor Junejo and Welfare Attache Amir Nisar Chaudhry met all detained students namely Shoaib Khan, Abdul Wahab Khan, Tariq ur Rehman and Abid Naseer who have instructed him to file their appeals which have been lodged with the required court with effect from April 28.

Though no charges were brought under criminal proceedings against the students and on April 21 they were released from criminal investigation to UK Border Agency who initiated immigration deportation proceedings.

According to Malik, the appeals have been lodged on the grounds that the appellants are racially discriminated being Pakistani nationals and being Muslims and that it would be against appellant’s rights under ECHR for UK to remove or deport them from Britain because the country is signatory to the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.

Furthermore, the British Home Secretary has not put forward any concrete evidence in her contention that the appellants are a threat to “national security” of the UK and or even if there is any reason to support that contention, the proper course of action would be to charge the appellant and brought them before the court of law in a criminal proceedings.

But such proceedings has never been ensued and no charges were put forward by the Crown Prosecution Service. Therefore there is no evidence to support any charges against the appellants and their arrest, detention and continuing incarceration is unlawful, and unreasonable and without any substance;

The appeal also said the appellants have been subjected to a one sided media trial at that time when they were incommunicado without a lawyer, consulate access and without a phone call to their family.

They have also felt that they have been made a scapegoat and immigration decision is but an effort to avoid answers to questions on the failure of the operation “Pathway” in order to divert attention from their innocence as the appellants feel that they are “innocent” until ‘proven guilty’ by a court of law.