WASHINGTON, Dec 26: Members of the Pakistani community in the United States are getting increasingly impatient with the embassy and their leaders as the registration deadline approaches.
From Jan 13 to Feb 21, an estimated 200,000 Pakistanis will to have appear before the US Immigration and Naturalization Service for special registration, required under the laws made after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“People are so worried that many are refusing to go out,” says Mahmood Malik, who works at a gas station in New York. “We have been left at the mercy of the INS without any help from the embassy or the community leaders.”
“Where are the community leaders who never tire of flashing their photographs with President Bush and President Musharraf? Why don’t they use their influence to help their compatriots,” asked Khalid Ali, who works at a grocery store in the greater Washington area.
So far the only concrete offer of support has come from the American legal aid groups who are distributing a questionnaire for those who have been interviewed by the INS.
They have been advised to share their experience, particularly the problems they might have faced during the registration, with the sponsors who provide legal aid to immigrants.
The embassy also has asked for suggestions to help Pakistanis with the registration process. But the immigrants want more from it.
They want the embassy and the government to use their influence with the US administration and get the country off the registration list.
To be fair to the embassy, Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi raised this issue with the US officials soon after Dec 16, when the country was put on the list. And he was told in so many words that no country, friend or foe, would be taken off the list.
“Then what’s the use of joining America’s war against terrorism,” asks Javed Bhatti, a Virginia cab driver. It is difficult to explain to a group of immigrants who fear deportation that Pakistan did not join the war against terror to protect them. There were other reasons for the decision.
The community is disappointed because it does not see anybody doing anything for it. The current ambassador, unlike his predecessor, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, keeps a low profile. Besides, he is a career diplomat and believes in going through “proper channels” while dealing with a problem.
Soon after Pakistan was placed on the list, he held meetings with senior officials from the state department, the department of justice and the White House.
The American officials, as an embassy press release later stated, assured him that there was no discrimination against Pakistan. And that all the countries placed on the terrorism watch list would stay there. In fact, the ambassador was told, some new members might soon join the nations.
The embassy, as expected, registered a strong protest. The official procedure was completed with a footnote that the embassy was keeping abreast of the situation.
In America, private channels can sometimes be more effective than the so-called proper channels. For instance, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent out a press release on Dec 14, warning that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had been placed on the INS special registration list. The press release also quoted the text of the official order placed on the Federal Register.
But on Dec 15, the embassy issued its own press release stating that it had checked the matter with the US administration, that had confirmed that Pakistan was not on the list.
Even on Dec 16, when the INS had released its official notification for the press, the embassy was struggling to confirm the news.
Embassy officials kept calling the state department, that continued to advise them to get in touch with the justice department, because it was a legal matter. The embassy could not get through to a justice department official until 4pm, 19 hours after the INS distributed its first press release.
While the embassy had its limitations, the community leaders did not have to wait for an official confirmation to speak for their compatriots. But they did not come to their help either. Not even after the news was confirmed.