Safdar Sarki
Encyclopedia
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz
Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz is a political party of Sindh that believes in more autonomy of Sindh.Jiyay Sindh movement was formed in 1972 to secede Sindh from Pakistan. It was later renamed Jeay Sindh Mahz by militant groups...
, an activist in the Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
i nationalist movement, and a former detainee of the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i government. As one of the many disappeared during the period of Gen. Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
's rule, the campaign to "find" him and get him released included prominent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, and the Asian Human Rights Commission
Asian Human Rights Commission
The Asian Human Rights Commission is an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region, and to mobilise Asian and international public opinion to obtain relief and redress for the victims of human rights violations...
calling for his release, while the New York Times and other news organizations reported that his health was in jeopardy because the Pakistani government refused to allow him necessary medical attention.
Sarki received his medical degree in Pakistan, but later moved to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where he most recently operated a motel business. While his wife and children remain in Texas, Sarki traveled to Pakistan in early 2006. On February 24, 2006, he was seized and, according to eyewitnesses, beaten severely by members of the Pakistani security forces and held in secret for eighteen months. In October 2007, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is the current Chief Justice of Pakistan.He became chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2005 and soon became not only a central figure in the nation's political struggles but an icon to the country's legal profession and others campaigning for the rule of law...
, then Chief Justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court, compelled the Pakistani government to acknowledge that it had detained and was continuing to hold Sarki, and order him brought before the courts for further inquiry. Pakistani police then announced that Sarki was being held on charges relating to possession of illegal weapons. In early November 2007, a local judge ordered that Sarki be granted bail and released from custody.
Before either order could be carried out, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
removed the Chief Justice from office and issued emergency decrees effectively ending the judicial inquiries into the matters of Sarki and of other detainees. The judge who granted Sarki bail was reportedly transferred to another district.
Sarki's attorneys reported that he was imprisoned in Zhob
Zhob
-Roads:Zhob is 333 kilometers from Quetta, 225 kilometers from Dera Ismail Khan. However, the road linking with Dera Ismail Khan is for most part fair nowadays track passing through water streams and almost complete road is metalloid....
, a remote area of Baluchistan
Balochistan (Pakistan)
Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...
, and that his physical condition had substantially deteriorated, requiring exigent medical attention. On December 8, 2007, a court in Baluchistan directed jail authorities to transport Sarki to the provincial capital of Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
for diagnosis and treatment of an apparent degenerative optical condition, but the authorities defied the order. According to researchers for Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Sarki has apparently been tortured by Pakistani authorities during his detention.
After several delays, a renewed hearing on Sarki's detention has been set for January 28, 2008. Both Sarki's lawyers and Ali Dayan Hasan, a senior Human RIghts Watch official, told the New York Times that they fear further judicial proceedings will be postponed until Sarki's continued physical deterioration ends in his death.
When asked about the case by the New York Times in January 2008, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Mahmud Ali Durrani, reported being familiar with the matter, but not in a position to respond to specific questions about it.
On International Human Rights Day (December 10) in 2006, after his abduction, Sarki was awarded the annual Human Rights Community Award by the Washington, D.C.-based United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA). The organization cited Sarki's leadership of the Jeay Sindh Quami Mahaz, a secular political party advocating for the Sindhi population.
He was released on May 2, 2008, after the Supreme Court of Pakistan
Supreme Court of Pakistan
The Supreme Court is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The Supreme Court has a permanent seat in Islamabad. It has number of Branch Registries where cases are heard. It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the...
ordered the heads of Pakistan's Military Intelligence and the Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
(ISI) to produce him or appear in court personally.
External links
- http://www.ahrchk.net/ahrc-in-news/mainfile.php/2006ahrcinnews/980/
- http://www.sindhudesh.com/safdar/index.html
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/savesafdar