—Washington will deport 52 out of 107 Pakistani prisoners currently languishing in US jails
—Repatriation plans finalised after several dialogues between Pakistan and US
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior (MOI) has granted permission to a chartered plane from United States (US) to land in the country on May 17 for repatriation/deportation of 52 Pakistani nationals currently languishing in US jails, it has been reliably learned.
Copies of documents available with Pakistan Today showed that Washington had so far decided to deport 52 out of 107 Pakistani prisoners held in US jails on the charges of terrorism, robbery, breach of immigration laws, sexual harassment, drug peddling and false citizenship. For this purpose, the US had decided to send a chartered flight after getting verification from Pakistan’s interior ministry. Also, Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had already approved the arrival and departure schedule of the US flight.
According to the flight schedule, a special flight (N 342AX) was scheduled to land in Pakistan on May 17 at Islamabad International Airport. This flight would fly out of Pakistan to the US on the same day at 11:30 am.
It is important to mention here that a plan to repatriate 52 Pakistani prisoners had been finalised between the two countries. Earlier, a number of dialogue sessions between the officials of the US Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and high-ups of MOI in Pakistan and officials of Pakistan’s Embassy in Washington have been conducted to ensure the repatriation of Pakistanis booked for committing different crimes. For this purpose, the US sought verification of 107 Pakistanis from Pakistan’s Embassy in Washington.
Similarly, ICE requested the Pakistani embassy to grant permission to a chartered flight coming from the US. However, nationality verification process of 107 suspected Pakistanis in the US was still underway as only 54 Pakistani nationals have been verified so far.
The MOI issued emergency travel documents (ETD) to 23 out of 30 individuals. The remaining seven persons were also set to be issued ETDs in a couple of days. Most of these individuals were already verified by the respective mission as they possessed the relevant National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) citizenship numbers.
“The total number of persons to be sent to Pakistan via the chartered flight was 54, including all verified cases as of now,” an email message of Saeed Ali, an official of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, said.
The ICE had set May 7 as the last date for the issuance of ETDs as the ICE authorities needed some time for preparatory work prior to the departure date, the documents said.
“Foregoing in the view, the ministry concerned is requested to kindly approach the MOI for expedited verification latest by May 4, 2018, of as many individuals as possible to bring the number of deportees to a reasonable level,” an email message of Counsellor Political-VI, Embassy of Pakistan, Washington DC, said.
These Pakistanis, currently serving jail-terms in US prisons, were booked for committing different crimes from 1996 to February 2018, including charges of terrorism, immigration violations, fraud, false citizenship, sexual assault, sex offences, gambling, drug possession, possession of a weapon, traffic offences and disorderly conduct.
Out of 54 Pakistanis named by ICE, only one Pakistani, namely Kashif Nauman, was being deported on terrorism charges, the documents further said.
Earlier, ICE presented an official request to Pakistan’s Embassy in Washington to grant permission to the ICE to conduct a charter mission for transportation of Pakistani nationals to Islamabad on April 23. However, delay in the nationality verification of Pakistanis had apparently caused the delay in the deportation.
“We currently have a manifest of 107 subjects to present with final orders of removal that are currently in the identity verification process. ICE respectfully requests the embassy to provide an official response to accept the charter proposal,” the US ICE said in its official request to Pakistan’s embassy.
According to the documents, around 35 Pakistani nationals were languishing in US jails for violating immigration rules, while 11 Pakistanis were in detention for committing sexual offences, and 18 persons were allegedly involved in the trade of drugs and arms.
It is important to mention here that Pakistani nationals are not the only ones to be deported from the US. The ICE conducted meetings with both Pakistani and Indian officials to finalise arrangements for sending a chartered joint flight carrying deportees from the two neighbouring countries. The jointly agreed chartered flight would first land in India to hand over the Indian prisoners and later arrive in Pakistan to drop off the deported Pakistani nationals.