28 November 2004	Sunday	15 Shawwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The government on Friday informed the Senate that it could not provide legal assistance to nine students deported from Cyprus in July.

"No legal assistance was provided to the students since they were immediately deported," said Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri in a written reply to a question by Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed.

He said the students were detained and deported on the basis of their "suspicious contacts". He said the government followed up the matter with the Cypriot government with persistence.

"Our ambassador was in constant touch with the Cypriot authorities. He approached the Cyprus government several times and met its foreign secretary and deputy chief of police several times in this regard," he said.

In reply to a question by Senator Anwer Bhinder, the minister said some Pakistanis were attacked at a golf club in Michigan in the United States.

Senator Bhinder had asked the minister if it was a fact that four Pakistani doctors were attacked in September at a golf club and as a result all of them were injured, one seriously.

"The consulate-general in Los Angeles and consulate in Chicago have confirmed that some Pakistanis were attacked at the golf club," said the minister.

However, the minister said, the Michigan state police from the Bay City post, who were contacted by Pakistan's consul in Chicago, expressed their inability to provide any information about the case because that was under investigation and court process.