WASHINGTON, March 9: A nephew of President Pervez Musharraf, who was recently detained by the American immigration authorities for visa violation, is legally blind, sources close to his family told Dawn.

They said that because of this handicap Aamir Javed Musharraf missed a legal notice asking him to adjust his visa status and was detained when he went to an immigration office in Memphis, Tennessee, on Feb 19 for registration.

He spent 16 days in prison and was released on bail.

Sources close to his family said that Mr Aamir has been living in the United States since 1994. He is married to an Arab- American woman, Hiba, and had applied for naturalization on the basis of his marriage.

His I-130 application, which allows an alien resident to become a naturalized American on the basis of family ties, was already in process when immigration authorities detained him, the sources said.

Officials at the INS say that Mr Aamir failed to respond to a recent letter warning him that he would become out-of-status if he did not appear before the INS within the given period.

That’s why he was detained when he came for registration, INS officials said.

Sources close to Mr Aamir’s family say that the letter was delivered to a wrong address and that’s why he did not know he had been asked to adjust his status.

They say that later the INS acknowledged that the letter they had sent to Mr Aamir did not have the right address but maintained that he had received at least one letter on this address as well.

Mr Aamir will now have to appear before an immigration court where his lawyer will have to prove that his failure to appear before the INS was not wailful.