‘Mush sold 4,000 Pakistanis to US and other countries’

Former President Pervez Musharraf secretly handed over as many as 4,000 Pakistanis to foreign countries, mainly to the US, in exchange for money, the commission on missing persons has said.

National Commission for Enforced Disappearances President Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal on Monday said that during the Musharraf regime, then Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao handed over 4,000 people to foreigners, reported The News.

He was briefing the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Human Rights over the issue of missing persons in the country.

Accusing the Parliament of not raising its voice against the former president and the minister, Iqbal, who is also a former National Accountability Bureau Chairman, said Musharraf had himself admitted to having done so.

“He should have been questioned that according to which law he handed people to foreign elements," he said, adding that 70 per cent of the missing individuals were involved in militancy and that those who had returned "were too scared to open up about their experiences”.

Declaring Musharraf's actions “illegal” and “unlawful”, recommendations have been put forward for further investigation into the matter.

"As per the law and the Constitution, how could someone secretly handover Pakistani nationals to any other country?" questioned Iqbal

The case of missing persons or enforced disappearances has been lingering in Pakistan's top court for years.

For decades, the cases are being either ignored or put on the back-burner because they raise serious questions on the country's secret agencies and their way of operations.