Home affairs must give info

2006-05-16 08:02

Pretoria - Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was on Monday given 10 days to come up with detailed information about the deportation of Pakistani Khalid Mahmood Rashid.

The Pretoria High Court ordered Mapisa-Nqakula and her department to give information about the Pakistani authorities who have allegedly received Rashid when he was deported, the flight number of the plane he flew in and the place where the plane landed.

This comes after Rashid's lawyer, Zehir Omar, asked the court to order this information be made available after the department previously claimed that Rashid had been deported to Pakistan but refused to furnish further information.

Rashid disappeared at the end of last year from Estcourt where he was picked up in a night raid on his home for allegedly being an illegal immigrant.

His arrest was contested in court but home affairs officials claimed that Rashid had already been deported to Pakistan within days after his arrest.

There were however fears in the Muslim community that Rashid may have been taken to an international detention centre.

People disappearing around the world

Omar then approached the court to ask it to order the department of home affairs to give details about Rashid's whereabouts.

The order was granted and earlier this year the department responded in legal papers that he was deported to Pakistan and since he was outside South Africa they couldn't give further information.

Omar then approached the Pretoria High Court to among other things get detailed information about his deportation.

Judge Poswa said on Monday that it was well known that people were disappearing around the world and that they then showed up, notably in United States, detention camps.

"The manner in which human being disappear is of concern," Poswa said.

He questioned why the flight information of Rashid's deportation could not be given at an early stage.

Poswa gave home affairs ten working days to come up with the information.

- SAPA