Detainees and their families are left confused, confounded, and frustrated. Pakistani officials
frequently claim in communications with family members as well as before the Lahore High Court
that the U.S. government is to blame for failure to move forward with repatriation and release of
detainees. 120 But many families believe Pakistani officials are trying to hide their own failures and
inaction. When asked who he believed was holding the repatriation process back Mubashar whose
nephew Javed disappeared from Karachi in 2004 said: “I think both governments, but particularly
Pakistan, are lying [about their powerlessness]. The Pakistani government always lies.” 121
Meanwhile U.S. officials have told at least some detainees that it is the Pakistani government that is
preventing their repatriation. “The Americans very often tell him [Maqsood] they want to set him
free but that the Pakistani Ministry of Interior says he is not Pakistani,” according to Maqsood’s
brother-in-law, Mukhtar. “They say they want to free him but his government does not want him
back.” 122
Muhammad, who has been in detention since 2002, also told his family that U.S. officials told him
that the Pakistani government is preventing his repatriation. “The Americans keep telling him they
want to free him but the Pakistanis don’t want him back,” according to Muhammad’s cousin Imtiaz.
“They constantly say that to him.” 123
Family members are equally critical of the United States, seeing the continued detention of their
loved ones without charge or trial as wrong and unjust. According to Pirzada, the detention of his
brother, Mustafa is “a grave injustice” that flouts the rule of law:
Everything in this world follows a law. People are arrested along the lines of the law.
Here there is no law. There is just the will of the Americans: if they wanted to arrest
him then they will go ahead and do that; when they want to free him they will do it
whenever they want. There is no law or justice. If there is a law, tell us what it is.
Even if he is tried under U.S. law we are ready to accept and believe that. At least we
will be able to hire lawyers to defend him. The Americans are in control; they control
everything. 124
Families see a double standard and hypocrisy in the United States’ actions. Mubashar, whose
nephew has been detained since 2005, claimed that the U.S. government cannot at the same time
champion human rights and hold individuals in indefinite detention. "If the United States talks so
big,” claimed Mubashar, “then they must also follow through with their words. They cannot claim to
be in favor of justice and then not do anything.” 125
Experiences of detainees released from long-term detention in the DFIP as well as Guantanamo Bay
has demonstrated that for those who return, often after years of detention, their ordeal takes a new
form. Psychologically scarred, having spent years in detention without adequate education or
professional training, often stigmatized upon their return, former detainees are often unable to find
120
Justice Project Pakistan interviews with relatives of current detainees (names, dates, locations withheld);
Report filed by the MFA in Sultana Noon vs. Federation of Pakistan, 25 September, 2012.
121
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Mubashar, December 2012 (real name, location withheld).
122
Justice Project Pakistan Interview with Mukhtar, November 2012 (real name, location withheld).
123
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Imtiaz, November 2012 (real name, location withheld).
124
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Pirzada, March 2013 (real name, location withheld).
125
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Mubashar (real name, date, location withheld).
32
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