Daily Times

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah on Friday expressed displeasure with the Attorney General’s Office for failing to appear at a hearing for forming a uniform consular protection policy for Pakistanis jailed abroad. In March, during a previous hearing of the same petition, the LHC CJ had observed that the government had “adopted a policy of ‘no policy’ on overseas Pakistanis in Arab countries”.

The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) submitted a dossier before the LHC to facilitate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to frame a uniform policy of consular access for Pakistani workers imprisoned or facing imminent execution in Gulf countries, after the government failed to submit any policy thus far. The dossier is a compilation of documents that outline the limitations of the existing policy; comparative examination of policies put forth by American, Australian, British, Dutch and German ministries of Foreign Affairs for their prisoners in Pakistan. It was submitted to expedite the policy framing process which has been pending for over two years before the LHC. The government of Pakistan has various human rights obligations towards its migrant workers, under both domestic and international laws. Under the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, it is obligated to ensure that the fundamental right to security of person (Article 9), safeguard from arrest and detention (Article 10), due process (Article 10A), dignity of man and protection from torture (Article 14) remain protected regardless of where a Pakistani national is resident (Article 4).

Pakistan continues to fall short of these obligations through its failure to put a universal consular policy in place.