[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7932-H7933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HAMESH KHAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Alabama (Mr. Brooks) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROOKS. Aslum Hamayun lives in Alabama's Fifth Congressional 
District. He is a father who loves and cares very much about his son, 
Hamesh Khan. At Mr. Hamayun's request, let me share with you and the 
American people the plight of Mr. Hamayun's son, Hamesh Khan.
  Mr. Khan is an American citizen who, thanks to the Obama 
administration and the United States Government, has been wrongfully 
held for over a year and a half in Pakistan prisons without indictment 
for a specific crime or trial. This is Hamesh Khan's story.
  Mr. Khan has lived in America since he was 10 years old. Mr. Khan 
earned a bachelor's and two master's degrees from Georgia Southern 
University. Following graduation, Mr. Khan worked for Citibank in 
Pakistan. In 2003, the Musharraf government appointed Mr. Khan to head 
Pakistan's Punjab Bank.
  Unfortunately for Mr. Khan, the Musharraf government fell in April 
2008. As seems to be so often the case in the world, a new government 
regime meant that appointees of the past regime risked trouble. In 
American citizen Hamesh Khan's case, the new Punjab government issued 
an arrest warrant on suspicion of corruption and corrupt practices. Let 
me emphasize that point, on suspicion of corruption and corrupt 
practices.
  Fearing politically motivated reprisals, Mr. Khan fled Pakistan for 
his home, America. Thereafter, Pakistan sought extradition of Mr. Khan 
pursuant to the arrest warrant for suspicion of corruption and corrupt 
practices.
  Let me be clear on this point. Three parties are involved in this 
tragedy: a new Pakistani regime; President Obama and the United States 
Government; and Hamesh Khan, an American citizen.
  The United States had to decide whom to support: Pakistan or an 
American citizen. The Obama administration chose Pakistan over its own 
American citizen. Mr. Speaker, it would be wonderful to know why the 
Obama administration made that decision.
  In any event, on December 10, 2009, Mr. Khan was arrested by United 
States marshals in his office in Washington, D.C., and held without 
bond for 5 months. Remarkably, persons in Mr. Khan's position are 
barred from fully defending themselves at extradition hearings. For 
example, Mr. Khan was barred from presenting evidence to impeach the 
allegations against him. Mr. Khan fought extradition until it became 
clear that the severe evidentiary limitations made it impossible for 
him to defend himself.
  On May 13, 2010, the United States Government forcefully handed Mr. 
Khan over to Pakistani authorities at John F. Kennedy Airport in New 
York. Mr. Khan was bound in handcuffs and leg chains. With the Obama 
administration's historic act, Hamesh Khan became the first American 
citizen ever extradited to Pakistan. The one concession the United 
States State Department received from the new Pakistani regime was a 
promise that Mr. Khan would be fairly treated under Pakistani law.
  While anyone hearing this story can suspect political motivations for 
the prosecution of Mr. Khan by Pakistani authorities, I am not in a 
position to make a judgment on that issue. But I am in a position to 
make a judgment about our United States Government and its 
responsibility to protect American citizens.
  Whether he is innocent or guilty of the charges by Pakistani 
authorities, Hamesh Khan has not been served justice. Under Pakistani 
law, after arrest for suspicion, Pakistan's National Accountability 
Bureau can hold a person for up to 3 months without bail. Within that 3 
months, Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau must either indict a 
held person for specific crimes for trial or order his release; yet it 
is now

[[Page H7933]]

over 18 months since Hamesh Khan became the first American citizen 
extradited to Pakistan, and for those 18 months, Mr. Khan has been held 
without bail, without indictment, and without trial. Mr. Khan lives in 
a 6-foot by 6-foot prison cell in Pakistan.
  I pray the American State Department did not anticipate that Mr. Khan 
would be held indefinitely without indictment or trial when they 
forcibly bound and shackled an American citizen and gave him to 
Pakistan.
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I enter this statement in the Congressional 
Record: It is time for America's State Department to use whatever 
influence is necessary and proper to cause Pakistan to treat Mr. Khan 
in accordance with Pakistan's own law and with international treaty 
obligations.
  Justice cannot be served an American citizen in any other way.

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