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Musharraf's nephew freed in U.S.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD March 9. United States authorities detained nephew of Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, for two weeks from February 19 for an alleged visa violation.

Aamir Javed Musharraf was detained on February 19 and released on Friday on bail, Pakistan English daily Dawn said in a front-page report. Quoting officials, the paper said he would now have to appear before immigration judge who could order him deported or allow him to stay in the U.S.

Although he had informed his family in Pakistan, "but so far nobody in the Government in Islamabad contacted the embassy to help him out,'' the daily said quoting an unidentified official at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

Immigration officials detained him in Memphis, Tennessee, when he went to register at a local immigration office under a programme requiring thousands of visiting men from 25 mostly Muslim countries to be photographed and fingerprinted.

Aamir Musharraf was found to have an expired tourist visa from 1994. Till early this week, about 1,700 people have been detained for at least a few days out of the 122,500 who have registered under the programme.

The registration programme was introduced on the first anniversary of the

September 11 attacks in the United States, and Pakistan was added to the registration list in December last year. The registration deadline for the Pakistani expired on February 21 but was extended for a month.

Most of the Pakistanis detained under this programme are asked to furnish a bail of $1,500 and are referred to an immigration judge for further proceedings. An estimated 50,000 Pakistanis are expected to be affected by the registration programme.

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