Pakistani students have been deported from foreign countries
57 Pak students deported in 7 years
Islamabad, July 30: As many as 57 Pakistani students have been deported from foreign countries, allegedly involved in suspected terrorism and other illegal activities, during the last seven years.
Among the 57 deported Pakistani students, 27 were deported from China, 17 from Cuba, one from Switzerland, one from Serbia, one from Netherlands and 10 from the United Kingdom.
During a Senate question hour, Foreign Affairs Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi informed that the charges on these Pakistani students include breaking the university and local laws, not paying the tuition fee, poor discipline, assault on police officers, suspected involvement in terrorist plots and being threats to the UK national security.
Pakistani missions, in a written reply he said, provided all possible assistance to those students, during their study program, before and after their expulsion.
The missions provided lawyers’ access to the students in the countries where the local laws allowed. However, no access to the lawyers was provided to the students studying under scholarship program-mes, which were fully funded by the host governments. Those students were deported on disciplinary grounds, the Minister informed.
He further added that the government has taken every possible measure to request the host governments to revise their decisions regarding the expulsion of these students. To another question, the Minister informed the upper house that as many as 19 Pakistanis are being currently detained at the US detention facility in Bagram.
A team of the Pakistani embassy, in Afghanistan, has visited Bagram and met with the concerned authorities for the release of Pakistan detainees, said the Minister.
A formal request has also been made to the US embassy in Kabul for the release of these detainees.
The joint task force 435, which is dealing with the Bagram detainees, have recommended to the concerned authorities to hand over the detainees to the Pakistani authorities, he informed.
“Our embassy is continuing to pursue the matter with the US embassy, in Kabul, for these Pakistani detainees, in the US detention centre in Bagram,” he added. The nation