March 17, 2003	Monday	Muharram 13, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 16: The government on Sunday dispelled the impression that the over 100 Pakistanis flown back to the country on March 13 in a chartered plane had been expelled by the US authorities.

A statement issued here by the foreign office on Sunday quoted a spokesman for the Pakistan embassy in Washington as saying that the 103 Pakistanis returned from various detention centres in the US to their homes last week at their own behest.

The statement sounded more like a clarification on behalf of the US administration that has been bitterly criticised for targeting Pakistanis under the new registration law.

The Pakistan embassy spokesman maintained that apart from three detainees, none of the other hundred deportees had anything to do with NSEERS. The spokesman said the consular officer of the embassy interviewed the repatriated detainees before their boarding the chartered flight and all of them wanted to return to Pakistan

According to the statement, of the 103 detainees repatriated last week, 83 were absconders from 1997-98. They did not comply with the court orders to leave the US when their applications for political asylum or change of status to other categories were rejected. Moreover, it was pointed out by the embassy spokesman that 17 of the repatriated detainees were convicts in criminal cases such as credit card fraud, marriage fraud, aggravated battery and felony.

The spokesman also stated that there had been a marked improvement in the circumstances affecting Pakistanis after the recent visit of Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to USA.

“While thousands of Pakistanis have undergone registrations, only 30 to 40 Pakistanis have been made to go through the judicial process where their cases are pending,” he said.

The concessions granted to Pakistanis in the US following Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri’s official visit to Washington were also recounted in the official statement. These included an extension of one month to the registrants, full access to legal recourse, and consular access and permission to Pakistan embassy officials to be present at the time of registration at various places in the US.