Zimbabwe is still holding a Pakistani national in remand
prison seven months after he paid a fine for breaching immigration rules, The
Standard, working together with the Information Development Trust, has
established.
Waqas Haider Shah was supposed to be deported immediately
after paying a fine of $300 to avoid a jail term imposed on him by a Beitbridge
magistrate on October 30.
Shah (31) was arrested together with two women, Faiza
Parveen and Asma Bibi — who were deported back to the Asian country after being
held in prison for two months, despite also paying a $300 fine each.
Asked to explain the circumstances surrounding the
continued detention of Shah, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred questions
to Home Affairs.
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services promised to
respond to questions sent to them about the video recording of the Pakistani prisoner’s
interview “inside Harare Remand Prison” and why they were still detaining Shah,
but failed to do so despite weeks of follow-ups.
The Immigration department also promised to respond to
questions sent to them three weeks ago, but despite several follow-ups, did not
answer questions regarding Shah’s detention and the deportation of the two
ladies without intimation to the Pakistani embassy.
Well-placed sources revealed that Shah sometime in February
was released before he was ordered back to remand prison when he was already at
the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport waiting to fly to Pakistan.
“There was a message said to be coming from higher offices
directing the Immigration department to order Mr Shah back to remand,” the
source said.
“He was interviewed while in remand by some Zimbabweans of
Pakistani origin without the knowledge of the embassy.
“The video was leaked by one Mian Sohail Qaiser and has
stoked a diplomatic row between Harare and Islamabad.”
Qaiser, a Zimbabwean businessman of Pakistani origin,
allegedly leaked videos of the three shot in prison implicating the Pakistan
embassy in human trafficking.
In its correspondences with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Pakistani embassy accused Qaiser of using his links to the ruling
Zanu PF to capture some government institutions and use them to tarnish the
image of the Asian country.
Foreign Affairs permanent secretary James Manzou last month
said the issue of the arrested Pakistanis was still under investigation.
In the interview with The Standard, Qaiser claimed that he
met Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso
Moyo at a marriage ceremony sometime in December 2019 and discussed the
deportation of the two women.
He said he wrote a letter to Kazembe and his deputy, which
was also copied to the chief immigration officer to have the two women deported.
Qaiser said Prosper Kambarami, a senior immigration
officer, requested a favour from him to become an interpreter during interviews
with the two ladies during their deportation process.
“I (being an interpreter) along with an immigration officer
did the video interviews in the immigration office,” Qaiser said.
Qaiser contested as a ruling Zanu PF party municipal
candidate in the 2018 general election.
He lost, but according to sources, he seems to have
ambitions to run for MP in Warren Park in 2023 when Zimbabwe holds its next
general elections.
In its many letters to the Foreign Affairs ministry, the
embassy expressed concern that government departments had been interacting with
Qaiser on issues concerning Pakistanis without its knowledge.
A source within the Pakistani community in Zimbabwe
revealed that Qaiser was working with many Asians to undermine the Pakistani
embassy.
“The real problem is that Qaiser is representing a number
of Zimbabwean citizens of Pakistani descent, who are staying in the country
without proper documents,” the source claimed.
“They want some embassy officials, who now have the details
of their nationals staying in Zimbabwe illegally, to be withdrawn from the
embassy as soon as possible.”
Qaiser did not respond to questions sent to him on his
WhatsApp number, despite reading them.
Earlier, his lawyer wrote to The Standard demanding a
retraction of the first story alleging his capture of institutions using Zanu
PF links.
But in an interview before the story accusing him of being
at the centre of a diplomatic row between Zimbabwe and Pakistan, Qaiser said
the embassy staff was involved in human trafficking.
He claimed he was once involved in an altercation with the
embassy’s charge d‘affaires, who threatened to kill him.
On the issue of the video recording of Shah from inside the
remand prison that was released on social media, at first Qaiser admitted that
he took one video, but said he didn’t share it on social media.
After being quizzed, he admitted to sending the video to
the Pakistani community in South Africa claiming it was later shared on
Facebook where it was picked by Pakistani news channels.
He said the video was recorded by one Qaiser Yousuf, also a
Zimbabwean national of Pakistani origin.
Later on during the interview, he admitted sharing the
video on the Facebook page of the Zimbabwe Asian Association to show the public
“the reality”.
“Being Zimbabwean citizen, being Zanu PF and chairman of
the Zimbabwe Asian Association, I cannot give permission to anyone to do human
trafficking in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“After receiving the complaint against me for recording a
video of the prisoner, the permanent secretary called me for the meeting and
inquired about the story.
“I explained to him the whole story and added that I know
the Zimbabwean law and I am a citizen of Zimbabwe and if anybody is doing a
crime, I have the right to stop and arrest those people and take them to Harare
Central.”
He added: “After taking my statement, Mr Manzou told me
that they are going to write to the embassy to withdraw his official and
thanked me for unveiling the truth.”
The embassy has described the involvement of Qaiser in
Pakistani issues as a “delicate and complex situation” and is concerned that
Harare is not doing enough to address its concerns after several of its letters
were not responded to. Standard
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