ISLAMABAD Aug 9: The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) has urged Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to take notice of the plight of Pakistanis and foreigners, who have either been kidnapped, tortured or killed in the country at the behest of the US authorities without recourse to any legal process enshrined in the Constitution.

This was stated in a letter sent by Khalid Khawaja, head of the PTI's Defence of Fundamental Rights Committee (DFRC), to the prime minister. The PTI chief, Imran Khan, had announced to defend the hapless people who suffered at the hands of agencies working on the behest of US authorities and constituted the DFRC.

Khalid Khawaja stated in his letter that during "our last meeting he had shared with the prime minister a proposal (in presence of Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the MMA) of vital national interest, which was appreciated by him but apparently due to constraints beyond his control, he could not proceed further with the issue.

Now the sequence of events have proved that if we had followed that proposal our nation could have been in much more respectable position today, he said. With this letter, he said, the attention of the prime minister was invited to an equally important issue regarding the plight of Pakistanis and those living here whose rights had been infringed.

He gave the example of Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani citizen, who was kidnapped by the US authorities and reportedly kept at Bagram camp in Afghanistan for the last 13 months with the complicity to the government of Pakistan.

By virtue of being a Pakistani national, Mr Paracha has every right to expect that the government shall make every effort to ensure that he was guaranteed his fundamental rights.

Despite repeated pleas of the family, the continued silence of the government has denied Mr Paracha of his fundamental right. It is indeed regretful that being a Pakistani the family of Saifullah Paracha have not even been sympathized.

He referred to the plight of Khadr family (Canadian nationals) whose case was pointed out to the prime minister by MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed and his daughter MNA Samia Raheel Qazi.