PETITION TO MR BILL CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON BEHALF OF BRITISH PAKISTANIS LIVING IN THE UNITED KINGDOM THROUGH UNITED STATES EMBASSY IN LONDON

22 March 2000

Dear President Bill Clinton

"When the oppressed people of the world cry out for help, the free people of the world have a fundamental right to respond". United Nations Secretary General.

Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has been apprising you with the details of gross human rights violations against the Mohajir nation in general and the MQM in particular, ever since 19^th. June 1992, the day Pakistan Army launched the Operation against the third largest political party of Pakistan in urban centres of Sindh including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas.

The gross human rights violations included not just denial of their socio-economic, political, fundamental and constitutional rights but right to life, freedom and liberty. Moreover, besides regularly apprising with the current details of the denial of rights and atrocities directly to you, the elected representatives of the MQM have been regularly apprising members of the diplomatic corps. of your Embassy in Pakistan. Furthermore, the representatives of MQM have also been apprising with the details to your staff at the U S Department of State in Washington, from time to time, nevertheless, frequently.

The representatives of your diplomatic corps. based in Pakistan have also met Mr Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of the MQM in London, several times. Our emphasis is that you and your governmental apparatuses have been kept fully abreast with the day to day situation of the Mohajir Issue in Sindh province and therefore, your indifference to the Mohajir issue would appear bewildering to us.

Socio-economic, political, fundamental and constitutional rights of the Mohajir nation has been usurped, soon after, the creation of Pakistan to maintain the hegemony of Punjabi Establishment. The military, establishment and bureaucracy of Punjab is so blunt that it felt no remorse in dismembering Pakistan in 1971 by denying the rights to the Bengali nation as now being done to the Mohajir nation in the present day Pakistan.

Since the launch of the Army Operation that is continuing unabated in one form or the other, over fifteen thousand Mohajirs including MQM leaders, office bearers, workers and sympathisers have been either murdered or extrajudicially executed. Hundreds are languishing in pathetic and inhuman conditions in unlawful and in incommunicado detentions on false and fabricated charges and without due process of law. Thousands of Mohajirs including MQM leaders, office bearers, workers and supporters are forced to live in hiding or exile in fear of their life and liberty. Thousands of Mohajir families have been rendered destitute because either their breadwinners have been murdered, extrajudicially killed or forced to live in hiding or exile. Twenty-eight MQM workers have "disappeared". Over twelve hundred families of MQM workers have been forcibly evicted from the "No Go" areas in Karachi.

Over sixty years old, weak and frail Mr Shoaib Bukhari Advocate, Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh (suspended) and a Member of the Co-ordination Committee of the MQM, Mr Wakeel Ahmed Jamali, Mr Mohammad Hussain and Mr Liaquat Qureshi, all elected Members of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh province belonging to the MQM as well as Mr Kunwar Khalid Younus, MQM Member of the National Assembly are in unlawful incarceration on false and fabricated charges for a prolonged period.

Dr Farooq Sattar, qualified physician, former Mayor of Karachi, former Minister for Local Bodies in Sindh Cabinet, MQM Parliamentary Leader in the suspended Provincial Assembly of Sindh and one of the senior members of the MQM Co-ordination Committee volunteered his arrest to the Authorities on 26^th. November 1999 after a night raid on his house and inhuman treatment by the army, paramilitary rangers, police and the personnel of the intelligence agencies to the members of his household and particularly to his personal secretary. His volunteered arrest was to save his family members from wrath of the State. The MQM has already informed you the details leading to his arrest and treatment meted out to him inside Attock Fort in the Northwest Frontier Province. His mock trial in incommunicado is taking place inside Attock Fort while the distance from Karachi to Attock renders him excommunicated from his family and lawyers, thus a perversion of justice by the State.

The allegations against Farooq Sattar have been filed in Karachi but he has been shifted to Attock Fort, over one thousand miles from Karachi in the Northwest Frontier Province bordering Punjab. According to the High Court rulings the trial of the accused would take place in the same jurisdiction where an F I R has been registered. Whereas, the deposed Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is being tried in Karachi. But Dr Farooq Sattar has been shifted to Attock Fort where he has been detained in a 7x7 feet torture cell deprived of the sunlight or any form of light and facility. Later, he was shifted to Attock Jail but produced within the Attock Fort handcuffed while Nawaz Sharif is brought to the Court in Karachi without handcuff. This, indeed, is manifestation of biased policies, xenophobia and racism against the Mohajir nation, their leaders and the political party, which is the third largest political party of Pakistan.

Mr President,

On many occasions, you have claimed that the United States is bound to ensure that human rights of individual or groups of people is respected, all over the world. According to that claim, being Head of the State, you are the upholder of human rights. Indeed, due to this realisation, you are demanding a fair, open and transparent trial for the deposed Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. It is reported in the newspapers that you have demanded of the Chief Executive of Pakistan General Parvez Musharraf not to hang Nawaz Sharif, even if he is found guilty. Reportedly, you have also said that you would raise the matter of Nawaz Sharif with the Chief Executive General Parvez Musharraf during your forthcoming visit to Pakistan.

We the British Pakistanis are touched with your concerns of human rights and for the deposed Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. Indeed, we are equally concerned and despondent on your indifference on Mohajir Crisis and the fate of Dr Farooq Sattar. You are totally tight-lipped on the matter of Dr Farooq Sattar, who is falsely charged for corruption whereas Nawaz Sharif is charged with hijacking of an airliner, terrorism and attempted murder of not only the Chief Executive but also two hundred passengers who were aboard the plane.

Your silence over unlawful detention of Dr Farooq Sattar and concerns for Mohammad Nawaz Sharif would deem as double standard by its notion or practical implications and such a perception by the Mohajir nation of you would not be truly befitting to your true image. Therefore, we request you to take equal interest in the matter of Dr Farooq Sattar as you are taking on the matter of the deposed Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. Please ask the Chief Executive not to victimise Mohajirs and extend free, fair and transparent trial not only to Dr Farooq Sattar in accordance to the law and his transfer back to Karachi but also to other unlawfully detained MQM leaders, elected representatives, office bearers, workers and supporters. Please also help Mohajirs and Sindhis to gain their rights and provincial autonomy of Sindh which is in the unlawful occupation of the Punjabi Establishment in the garb of the Federation controlled by the Army, Establishment and Bureaucracy of Punjab.

Yours truly

British Pakistanis