Islamabad April 16 (TNS): In a startling revelation, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances’ head Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal told the National Assembly Human Rights Committee on Monday that former interior minister Aftab Sherpao, single-handedly, handed over more than 4000 Pakistani citizens to foreign countries, mostly the US, and other hostile countries for dollars.
Justice (retd) Iqbal, who is also the chief of NAB, apprised the NA panel about the enforced disappearances and missing persons and the latest headway in their recovery.
He told the committee that at least 4,385 Pakistanis were deported and handed over to agencies of foreign countries when Aftab Sherpao was the interior minister and Pervez Musharraf was the military chief-cum-president and the latter has already confessed to handing over Pakistanis to foreign countries.
Justice (retd) Iqbal expressed his shock that these Pakistanis were handed over to foreign countries despite the fact that Pakistan has no extradition treaty with them.
Justice (retd) Iqbal pointed out that the two (Sherpao and Musharraf) were directly involved in enforced disappearances and handing over the Pakistani citizens to foreigners for dollars.
He also said that international NGOs also played a dirty role in this connection and they were involved against anti-state activities which could be corroborated from the fact that how they engaged and roped in Dr Shakeel Afridi in the name of launching a polio campaign in Abbottabad and leading to the humiliating arrest of Osama bin Laden.
“I would have banded the international NGOs in the country but administrative and political hurdles came his way.
He told the committee that the number of missing persons reported till August 2017 was 4,385 and of them, over 2,500 have been traced and their cases have been disposed of.
Of the remaining 1,386, 793 were missing persons from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 247 from Punjab.
