ISLAMABAD, May 16: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao said on Tuesday about 35 Pakistanis were still languishing in Guantanamo Bay jail, a US-controlled torture cell where alleged terrorists and Al Qaeda members are detained.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Saarc Interior Ministers’ Conference in Dhaka, he said the US authorities had provided Pakistan the list of 29 Pakistanis detained in Guantanamo Bay. Of them eight would be repatriated soon.
“We know that about 35 Pakistanis are still in the US jail but the identification of seven to eight has not been disclosed so far,” the minister said.
He said about 67 Pakistanis had returned from Guantanamo Bay.
He said a delegation of the foreign office would visit Guantanamo Bay to get complete information about detained Pakistanis so that they could be released.
The minister said the government was sending a delegation to Afghanistan to get hundreds of Pakistanis released from Afghan jails.
Answering a question, he rejected reports that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Investigation Agency were establishing their offices in Pakistan. “It is not in my knowledge,” he added.
Answering another question about a Pakistani student, Amir Cheema, who recently died in a German person, he said that the government sought more information about the death of Cheema from Germany.
Commenting on the Charter of Democracy signed by Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Nawaz Sharif in London, he said that most of the clauses of the charter could not be implemented.
About the Saarc conference, the minister said the Saarc member countries, including India, lauded the role of Pakistan in the war against terrorism.
Mr Sherpao said that the next Saarc ministerial conference would be held in India.
