PLEASE refer to the letter titled ‘Saifullah Paracha’ (March 14). The letter writer wrote about the “continued incarceration of 70-year-old former Senator Saifullah Paracha at Guantanamo Bay prison.”

My father, former Senator Mian Saifullah Khan Paracha, lives a retired life in his home in Quetta at 14-A Zarghoon Road. He holds a degree in engineering from Berkeley and was a contemporary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at the university.

He was elected to the Senate from Balochistan twice; served as a provincial minister under two governments, served as president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and on the board of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. Now at 88 years of age, he continues to serve Balochistan.

He runs a free diagnostic lab in Quetta, is a patron of the Islamia School orphanage, and serves on the board of Lady Dufferin Hospital. He carries on as a conservationist, having released tens of thousands of chukar partridges in the wild, after incubating them in his private facilities.

I cannot understand how anyone could confuse him with Saifullah Paracha, the alleged Al-Qaeda operative who was caught in money laundering and is still serving his sentence in Guantanamo Bay. Above all, I would not have expected Dawn to let such an error go undetected. I do hope that the letter has escaped the notice of my father, Saifullah Paracha, as Karachi newspapers arrive in Quetta in the afternoon when he is done with his news-reading.

Nazli Rafat Jamali
Karachi
Dawn regrets the mix-up. — Editor

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2020