THE GAZETTE
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Another Pakistani ordered deported
No more appeals. Musician fled torture and came to Canada
CATHERINE SOLYOM
The Gazette
Saturday, July 31, 2004
It seems every week another Pakistani is being deported.
Two weeks ago, it was the Khan family, members of the Shiite minority in Pakistan. Last week, it was Nahida Syed and her family, members of the outlawed independence party of Kashmir.
This week, it’s Dawood Khan’s turn. An acclaimed musician and a Christian, Khan says as soon as he became famous for his music at home, he also drew the attention of fundamentalists who used torture to try and force him to convert to Islam.
But however different their personal profiles may be, the deportees all say Canada is sending them to their deaths.
The Khan and Syed families are currently in the U.S., trying to forestall their imminent removal to Pakistan. They were escorted out of Canada earlier this month.
But Dawood Khan, 53, is scheduled to be deported straight back to Pakistan on Aug. 10, where his notoriety makes it impossible for him simply to hide.
“My life and my family will be in danger if I return to my country,” says Khan, who plays and now teaches a growing number of students here the tabla, a classical Indian drum.
Khan’s troubles began in Quetta, Pakistan, when he was asked to judge a music competition. He and two other judges awarded first prize to a Christian girl for singing. But the runner-up, who belonged to the extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan or SSP, accused him of bias.
When the SSP started threatening him and harassing his daughters on the way to school, he and his family moved to Lahore. But the SSP caught up with him, Khan said. He was kidnapped and tortured and threatened with death if he didn’t convert to Islam.
He decided to seek refugee status in Canada instead.
Khan’s lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, says his story from thereon in parallels that of many other refugee claimants in Montreal who were arbitrarily refused by a judge at the Immigration and Refugee Board.
“There’s a terrible problem of racial profiling at the IRB and some judges seem to believe that every Pakistani is a liar and it doesn’t matter how much proof they have, they just say no.”
Khan has affidavits from Catholic pastors and musicians in Pakistan describing how he was threatened and his whole family forced into hiding. Some of them detail how they have been helping his family survive since he left Pakistan in 2000.
It was enough for one federal court judge to stop his deportation in March. But a second judge, without granting him a new hearing, issued another deportation order for Aug. 10, Istvanffy said.
Federal Immigration Minister Judy Sgro said this week the refugee determination system needs to be streamlined - there are too many avenues of appeal open to claimants, she said.
Istvanffy disagrees. There is no way to appeal a decision based on the merits of the case, he says. Federal court will only grant a hearing if they determine the IRB judge made an error in law.
“The only court we have left right now is the court of public opinion,” Istvanffy said, preparing an appeal for Khan to stay on humanitarian grounds. “That’s the only appeal in Canada.”
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2004
This man Dawood Khan is a very good friend of mine. He is a fantastic tabla player. IMO he compares with Zakeer. The classical music lovers in Montreal tried their level best to help him out but to no avail.
My question to Pak guppies. The shia Khan familiy, Dawood Khan who is a christian, Nahida Syed and her familiy who were active in independence of Kashmir in Azad Kashmir, all of them claimed that Pakistani fundamentalists would kill them if deported to Pakistan. Is this true and in your opinion are their refugee claims justified. Canadian government obviously thinks otherwise. We have an unending stream of Pakistanis who have filed refugee claims here in Canada on the basis of religious harassment. Are these claims justified?