Arif Alvi, Shebaz asked to order judicial probe Greece boat tragedy

Pakistanis fleeing to Europe arrested in Libya,

ISLAMABAD – A lawyers’ body has sent a letter to President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, demanding judicial investigation into the Greece boat incident in which hundreds of Pakistanis are feared dead.

Judicial Activism Panel head Azhar Siddique has sent the letter, stating a judicial commission comprising three judges of the Supreme Court should be made to unearth the facts.

Saying citizens have right to information under Article 9 of the Constitution, he said reasons behind the boat disaster should be investigated and elements involved in it must be pinpointed.

Earlier this week, Pakistan observed a national day of mourning on Monday for the victims of last week’s shipwreck off the coast of Greece, in which hundreds of Pakistani nationals are feared to have died.

Local media say more than 200 Pakistani nationals were among an estimated 750 people on board the fishing trawler heading for Europe when the vessel sank on Wednesday, June 14, off the Peloponnese peninsula.

At least 20 of those missing were from the city of Gujranwala, in Punjab province. Among them was Amir Malik’s cousin Mohsin, who left a voice note as he boarded the boat in Libya’s Tobruk on June 9.

“Once he arrived in Libya, the smugglers took his phone. We had no choice but to go through the smuggler to be in contact with him,” Malik said. “That’s how we learned that he was not going to go to Europe by plane but illegally, by boat. Mohsin told us: ‘I am trapped, I have no choice but to follow them.’”

Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities have arrested several suspects involved in human smuggling following the boat incident as crackdown is underway against them.

Earlier,

A group of 10 Pakistani citizens who were detained in a Libyan prison during illegal migration appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government to release them.
All these Pakistani detainees belong to the area of Jalalpur Bhattian in Hafizabad.
A resident of Jalalpur Bhattian, Amanullah with nine other companions imprisoned in the Libyan jail appealed to the Pakistani Government for help, in a video message.
The captives said that their agent Usman Tarar took Rs2.4 million from each of them for taking them to Europe and fled after dropping them all in Libya.
He said the Libyan Police have arrested them but not even given them a meal properly and they have to stay hungry for most of the days.
The prisoners gave a message to the Pakistani people that they should never be trusted by the agent mafia as all of these agents have gone underground after the tragic Greece boat accident.