Harvard Amnesty Mail Protest Helps Free Political Prisoner

The Harvard branch of Amnesty International (AI), along with three other college branches, apparently helped gain the release of a Pakistani political prisoner last month.

In a campus-wide drive this fall, more than 700 letters and postcards were written to the president of Pakistan demanding the release of 30-year-old Tariq Ahsan.

Ahsan was released on January 11 after serving several months of a two-year sentence and nearly two years of pre-trial detention.

While in jail he was tortured, and because of unsanitary conditions in his cell, he developed severe dental problems, skin allergies, and lost all his hair.

Ahsan was arrested because a friend had used his motorbike to distribute leaflets advocating that the Pakistani government restore democracy.

He plans to continue studying toward a Ph.D in political science at Carleton University in Ontario.

Florence Grossman of Hicksville, N.Y., head of the national Al "adoption group" in charge of Ahsan's case, said his release was "a rare and unusual occurence in Pakistan" because of what she said was the poor human rights record in that country.

Al members spent at least 200 hours this fall working on the letter-writing project, and a few members worked over 100 hours individually, according to David A. Rabson '85 of the Harvard chapter.

Members are somewhat reluctant to take credit for Ahsan's release, but not because they doubt that their work is often effective.

"No government is going to say that a prisoner was released because of Amnesty International," member Daniel E. Lieherman '86 said yesterday, adding, "but there is no other reason why the Pakistani government would have released this person."

The two-year-old Harvard AI chapter includes 300 members. Funding for the fall drive came from a $220 grant from the Undergraduate Council and from $300 in student donations.

Harvard AI sponsors write-in campaigns twice yearly. Last February members sent 3300 postcards calling for the release of two dissidents in Uruguay, and another major drive is scheduled for April.

Students from John Jay College in New Jersey, Drew University in Wisconsin, and the University of Southern Alabama also wrote Pakistani president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq this fall to demand Ahsan's release.