reposted from The News | April 17, 2011 | Story
Background: Amnesty International Report | February 23, 2011 Pakistan: Balochistan atrocities continue to rise

photo: Mehran Baluch in Geneva

by Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: The European Union (EU) accepted a Pakistani demand and cancelled the speech of an eminent Baloch leader to the EU Human Rights sub-committee, The News has learnt.

Mehran Baloch, son of Nawab Khair Baksh Marri, a Balochistan representative at the United Nations, European Union and many other international forums, was invited to speak by the EU Sub-Committee on Human Rights to Members of European Parliament (MEPs) on April 13 but, to his shock, he was told by organisers a few minutes before he was scheduled to deliver the speech that Pakistan had demanded to cancel the Baloch's speech through European External Action Service (EEAS).

The News has seen a copy of the official letter sent to Mr Vittorio Prodi, Member of Human Rights Committee European Parliament and brother of former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, by Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union.

In the letter, the ambassador has linked Mehran, a British national, with "organisations proscribed by many countries, including Pakistan and the UK", including with an NGO called "Interfaith International" which was, on the Pakistani government's initiative, suspended in February 2010 for two years by the NGO Committee of the United Nations in New York "due to its involvement in activities repugnant to the principles and Charter of the United Nations."

The EU member states were briefed that Mehran would deliver a "hate speech," and that he was a "racist" and would bring infamy to the EU.

Mehran Baloch protested to the Sub-Committee on Human Rights that the ambassador's letter was motivated by politics and the EU should not succumb to any pressure but the invitation to attend and speak at the EU was withdrawn while Mehran was present on the EU Parliament floor.

Speaking to The News in London, Mehran said that the Pakistani establishment should stop misappropriating the little funds that it has in its begging bowl. He said that not a single Baloch has ever participated in any anti-state activities in the UK.

A UK Border Agency spokesman confirmed that Mehran Baloch was stopped and questioned at the Heathrow Airport.

Mehran Baluch is the Baloch representative in the United Nations Human Rights Council.