We Must Support Pakistani Students in the UK
By Naveed Khan
San Jose, CA
Eleven Pakistanis students were rounded up in dramatic anti-terrorism raids and held on judicial remand for three weeks. No evidence of terrorism was found against them. The UK wants to deport them anyway.
Shortly after the arrests, UK’s Prime Minister is his most audacious and arrogant moment telephoned the Pakistan PM and demanded that Islamabad should do more to control terrorists entering the UK. He promptly made his conversation public to embarrass the Pakistani leadership. Those arrested and now detained by immigration authorities are legitimate students who were pursuing higher studies and were granted visa by the UK embassy. Some of them were there for more than two years. The sensational arrests and ensuing publicity orchestrated by the UK police must have traumatized and left a chilling effect on residents and students of Pakistani origin in the UK.
Now the entire case has collapsed but instead of apologizing and compensating the students, Great Britain is insisting on their deportation! Gordon Brown, UK premier is rushing to Pakistan to force a deportation treaty, contrived after the melodramatic incident. I am astonished at the British apathy and haughtiness in arresting these students without any evidence, later recriminating Pakistan and now insisting on their deportation.
The MQM never spares an opportunity to criticize the Pakistan government on its transgressions but it has kept quiet on this issue of critical importance. In general, most of the Pakistani leadership has been mute in their reaction to the gross injustice done to these students. Hardly any leader or respectable member of the civil society has been vocal in his/her condemnation of UK’s actions.
It would be even more traumatic and demoralizing if the government of Pakistan accepts UK’s plea and agrees to the deportation treaty being pushed by the British leadership. Pakistan must stand up for these students and so must our leadership. Civil society should protest the British PM’s presence in Pakistan. If we are unable to protect the genuine rights of the implicated but totally innocent students, we would lend legitimacy to these actions and this would be bad for all Pakistanis residing in the West.
