January 8, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The parliamentary leader and acting president of Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has urged relief for Pakistanis who were required to register themselves in the United States.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the PML-Q leader said: “I am concerned at the planned registration of Pakistanis in America which has sent shock waves through our community there”.

Given the existing cooperation between Pakistan and the US, it would be a gesture of goodwill that these Pakistanis with irregular status are given relief in a way that the US government regularises their legal status, he said.

Shujaat added: “When I was federal interior minister, I had a hand in the regularization of the status of some 20,000 Pakistanis in Greece as well as many in Hong Kong”.

Most importantly, he said, the affected Pakistanis in the US were completely innocent of any complicity in terrorism.

Registration in its present form would only punish the innocent and cause needless human suffering to them, Shujaat said, adding: “The US would do well to take a second look (at the issue)”.