Geneva-based UNHR Council expert Ansar Burney will leave for India on Saturday to receive "Mother Terasa Memorial International Award on Human Rights and Social Justice." During his stay in India, he will also take up the problems of Pakistanis being held in Indian jails since long, even after completing their sentences.
He will meet human rights groups and senior Indian officials to discuss the problems of Pakistani prisoners. The Harmony Foundation of India will felicitate Pakistan's former Federal Minister for Human Rights, with the "Mother Terasa Memorial International Award" for being the first man to introduce the concept of human rights in Pakistan.
Burney has to his credit the distinction of having secured the release of more than 700,000 prisoners around the world especially from Asian and Gulf countries. The award was instituted in 2005 and Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker, House of Lords, UK, was its first recipient. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad received it in 2006. The award giving ceremony will be held in Mumbai on Sunday evening.
Dr Abraham Mathai, Vice Chairman of the State Minorities Commission, Government of Maharashtra, India and President of the Harmony Foundation, in his letter to Ansar Burney has said: "The very fact that you were declared an 'Anti-Human Trafficking Hero' in 2005 by the US State Department for outstanding international campaign to end child slavery in the Middle Eastern countries in the form of child camel jockeys lends credence to you being a hero for those who believe in humanity and human rights without any discrimination among human beings."
Talking to APP, Ansar Burney said that in India he would make all efforts to secure the release of all such Pakistanis who had completed their prison terms but had not been freed. There are over 50 such prisoners in Amritsar jail alone and one of them, Mohammad Asif, had died of medical complications on October 11, he added.