FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary body on Thursday expressed serious concern over the disappearance of former principal of Pak-Turk School along with his family from Lahore and observed that such incident would bring bad image to the country.

A former principal of Pak-Turk School, Mesut Kacmaz, was kidnapped along with his family last month from Wapda Town, Lahore. According to details, the family was picked up by over a dozen armed people in plain clothes including women. Hooded and handcuffed they were bundled in a wagon and driven away.

The committee which met with Senator Nasreen Jalil took up the issue of disappeared Turkish family working for Pak-Turk Schools and decided to summon relevant officials of the federal and provincial governments to its next meeting to further discuss the matter.

While raising the issue, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the specter of vanishing citizens after Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had now extended to the disappearance of foreigners and called for immediate parliamentary intervention.

Babar said, “This is the internal political matter of Turkey and if we arrest people here in Pakistan and hand them over to Turkish government, it would have bad impression.”

Jalil said that the issue of deportation of teachers of Pak-Turk Schools had been raised in the Parliament and it was decided that they should not be deported. “If our agencies are involved in such activities to please other foreign countries, it would bring bad name to the country,” she said.

Senator Mohsin Leghari said that Pakistan should not become a party to internal political wrangling in Turkey. He also suggested that victims’ families be also invited but it was decided that in the first instance relevant officials be asked to brief the committee and provide answers to the questions arising out of the facts that have so far come to surface.

Babar had also submitted a calling attention notice and a motion on the disappearance of Mesut Kacmaz family from Lahore on September 27.

The meeting also discussed the issue related to payment of any compensation to the affectees released from Bagram prison, Afghanistan, under Civilian Victim Act.

“It was proposed that there should be a regular fund for the compensation of the people who lost their lives in drone attacks or in the fight against terrorism in terror-hit areas in order to ensure provision of education to their children and take care of their families,” Babar said, adding that there should be a mechanism for compensation of people who were picked up in the foreign countries and then declared innocent.

He said that the federal government should constitute general law for compensation of terror victims as well as those who were released from foreign jails after they were being declared innocent. Two innocent persons returned from Guantanamo Bay and around five from Bagram jail, he said.

Jalil said that there is a dire need of enacting the humanitarian law.

Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the meeting that there is no prisoner exchange agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is no law under which efforts should be made for release of people languishing in jails in Afghanistan and the United States, they said.

The meeting also took up the agenda items including “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights), Bill 2017” moved by Senator Karim Ahmed Khawaja and “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2017 moved by Senator Rubina Khalid. The committee observed that both the bills were similar in nature and they should be clubbed together to avoid overlapping.

The committee constituted a subcommittee with Senator Sitara Ayaz as convener and Nisar Khan and Mir Kabir Shahi as members to club both the bills and prepare a final draft.

The meeting was attended by Senators Mohsin Leharai, Nisar Muhammad Khan, Sitara Ayaz, Karim Ahmad Khawaja, Samina Saeed, Kalsoom Perveen and Sehar Kamran.