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Students caught up in UK-Pakistan deportation row

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Nine Pakistani students are still detained in British jails because of a diplomatic standoff between Pakistan and Britain, which, apparently no one is in a hurry to resolve.

The students were arrested in April in connection with an alleged terror plot and were released in May after prosecution failed to produce sufficient evidence to charge them.

But they were not allowed to resume their studies, remaining detained under immigration rules relating to national security and ordered to be deported. But they still remain detained because London wants a written assurance from Islamabad that the students would not be mistreated when they return home, in line with British policy of not sending people back to countries where they could be prosecuted. Apparently, British officials talked to their Pakistani counterparts in the Interior Ministry, but were snubbed.

However, Islamabad says it is unhappy over its nationals “being treated as criminals without evidence”, and did not want to be party to Pakistanis’ deportation, which it said was arbitrary. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hasan and other officials have publicly called on the UK to release the students and let them resume studies.

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