Today Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry speaking on the topic of human rights, said: ‘Basic human rights are a backbone in the formation of a civilised society’.Indeed they are.
This reminded your Blogger of the horrific story he read in the papers yesterday.
It concerns a man named Saud Memon, who was brought to the Supreme Court on Friday carried on a stretcher during a hearing of the Missing Persons Case.
According to the Nation:
“Saud Memon [was] arrested on March 7, 2003
"[He} is a cloth merchant from Karachi and had gone to South Africa on a business trip when he was arrested."
“[He] was sent to Guantanamo Bay and was handed over to Pakistani agencies in 2006"
“[He] was released by the Intelligence Agencies on April 28, 2007”
"On April 28, he was found dumped at a place near his house in Karachi."
“[He] is in a critical condition and due to harsh treatment meted out to him, has lost his memory and weight. Now he weighs only 18 kgs. He has shrunk into a skeleton and can neither walk nor hold his head."
“It was confirmed by three other people released from ISI’s detention that Saud Memon was also with them in ISI custody.”
One would imagine that the horrendous sufferings of this poor man are over, but no. As Dawn tells us:
‘This skeleton of a man has a reward of Rs3 million on his head in the Red Book of our Interior Ministry’, advocate Shaukat Akhtar Siddiqui told the court, pointing to the emaciated body of Saud Memon brought on a stretcher.
Okay, this man might have been a suspected religious extremist but so far no court seems to have been provided with the evidence of his crimes.
More importantly, no one has the right on God's earth to treat an individual as a human piece of garbage.
Pakistan
Missing Persons Case
Supreme Court of Pakistan
6 comments:
18 kg ... 18kg! I hope against all hope that was a typo.
“Gen Musharraf was infuriated about the reports that the CJ was about to ask the ministries of defence and the interior to produce in court, or explain the whereabouts of, a large number of Pakistanis who have "gone missing". Those who have filed a petition on this issue allege that these persons have been handed over to the CIA by the Pakistani ISI in return of generous cash, reportedly as much as $ 80 million.”
18 kg was what was reported in the Nation ('SC seeks traced persons affidavits' by Iman Hasan).
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/may-2007/5/index3.php
It is impossible that u haven't read In the line of fire. In that book President said that we enjoyed bounties of millions of dollars from US by handing over them suspicious ppl or in other words(if say) missing people
I am not sure why anyone finds this shocking. All most all our leaders except one or two exceptions have treated the people as garbage..its very much a regular thing...and the funny thing is sometimes the people let it happen to them by not taking a stand or going with the flow when they see it happening to someone else.
You may already know this, but Saud Memon owned the land where journalist Daniel Pearl was held captive and executed. He's also believed to be the man who led the killers to him, and was present as they filmed his beheading. I think the suspicions about his religious extremism were more than suspicions...
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