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STATEMENT BY ANTI-SLAVERY IN RESPONSE
TO INQUIRIES ABOUT LIBEL CASE EHSAN ULLAH KHAN vs THE OBSERVER
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In March 1996, nine months after charges
were brought against him by Pakistan's security police, Ehsan Ullah
Khan, the head of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front of Pakistan,
was the subject of an article in The Observer which accused
him of dishonesty and corruption.
Not only did the newspaper's article tend to serve the purposes of
Pakistan's security police, but The Observer subsequently refused
to publish any of the numerous letters submitted by Ehsan Ullah Khan
and others countering the article. The accusations published by The
Observer were duly repeated by representatives of the Government of
Pakistan at the United Nations and elsewhere in order to support the
authorities’ contention that Ehsan Ullah Khan was a criminal.
The security police brought charges against Ehsan Ullah Khan in 1995
because of his success in securing publicity about both child labour
and bonded labour in Pakistan. It is regrettable that The Observer,
which has often provided a strong platform for human rights causes,
chose this time to make serious accusations against a human rights
activist without checking some of the most serious allegations and
refusing to publish any response.
Details about bonded labour, particularly child bonded labour, in
Pakistan are available in an Anti-Slavery report, This Menace of
Bonded Labour, published in May 1996, and in two information sheets
issued by Anti-Slavery in 1998.
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| 2 March 1999 |
PR/2/99 |
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