SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Mama Qadeer’s son Jaleel Reiki went missing in 2010. While Mama Qadeer had a feeling about his son’s fate, he did not have the heart to tell his grandson. For three years he waited and then, two days before Eidul Azha, he took Reiki’s son to see his father’s bullet-riddled body. Thus in order to raise voice against state tyrannies, he decided to protests and with a group of protestors, travelled more than 2,000 kilometers on foot along with a group of Baloch women and men on their way from Quetta to Islamabad. The purpose of their non-violent long march was to raise voice against enforced disappearances in Balochistan. However for this defiance he has punished. Yester day a news reported that Mama Qadeer has been banned from travelling abroad. He was stopped at the Karachi airport on Wednesday. Before the activist, accompanied by two colleagues, could board a flight to the US to attend a seminar, the group was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency and told their names were on the Exit Control List. Mama Qadeer says officials told him he was involved in “anti-Pakistan” activities, which is why he could not travel abroad. The campaigner was supposed to participate in a seminar in New York on rights violations in Sindh and Balochistan. The move clearly smacks of political victimisation. What is particularly disturbing is why the individuals had not been informed when their names had been placed on the ECL; this would have allowed them to challenge the move legally. This incident indicates the state is continuing to misuse the ECL. Instead of employing it as a tool to prevent the flight of violent and dangerous suspects or criminals, it seems the government is using the list as a way to punish critics and opponents by restricting their freedom to travel. If Federal Government does not take action against this move, it would simply mean that raising voice for own rights is a crime in Pakistan. Human rights groups and Human rights watch should take this matter serious and raise voice against this discriminatory behavior with Mama Qadeer.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
