Information on Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain, brother of Interior Minister Shujaat Hussain, is scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

On 13 June 1995 the Karachi-based daily newspaper Dawn reported that the Punjab Home Secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa had lodged a complaint with police charging former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others with high treason (DWS 15 June 1995). Sharif's co-accused including former federal interior minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former provincial governor Mian Muhammad Azhar, several MNAs and MPs, as well as former MP Chaudhry Wajahat Husssain and other former MPs (ibid.). Nawaz Sharif and the other co-accused were charged with attempting to prevent the likely dissolution of the Provincial Assembly following the April 1993 no-confidence motion against the then Punjab Chief Minister Ghulam Haider Wyne and his replacement by Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo (ibid.). Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain was reportedly one of those involved in the "taking away" of the then Secretary of the Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Habibullah; an FIR was registered at a Lahore police station (ibid.). Many of the accused were either arrested, released on bail or in judicial lock up, but Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain and Chaudhry Shaukat Ali "could not be arrested and were declared proclaimed offenders" (ibid.). The Research Directorate was unable to find additional or corroborating information.

In December 1996 the Reuter European Business Report covered a judicial inquiry into a "banking scandal" in Pakistan in which the families of Nawaz Sharif and Chadhry Shujaat Hussain "had taken loans from Yunus Habib [former chief operating officer of the private Mehram Bank, Ltd] without proper formalities or collateral (8 Dec. 1996). The report did not indicate whether it was Hussain's immediate or extended family that was so accused, nor did it provide any names.

No reports of followers of Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain intimidating or harassing PPP supporters, nor of Wajahat's official and unofficial positions, could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Dawn Weekly Service (DWS) [Karachi]. 15 June 1996. Shujaat Ali Khan. "High Treason Case Against Nawaz." [Internet] http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/Saserials/Dawn/1995/15Je95.html [Accessed 2 June 1999]

The Reuter European Business Report. 8 December 1996. BC Cycle. Tahir Ikram. "Pakistani Bank Scandal Inquiry Absolves President." (NEXIS)

Amnesty International Report 1997. 1997.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1996. 1997.

Dawn Weekly Service (DWS) [Karachi]. 4 January-26 December 1996.

Electron search engine.

Google search engine.

Human Rights Watch World Report 1997. December 1996.

Metacrawler search engine.

Electronic sources: Internet, IRB Databases, NEXIS, REFWORLD.