WASHINGTON, Jan 17: United States Attorney General Ashcroft has informed Pakistan that it cannot be deleted from a list of the countries whose nationals are considered a security threat to the US.

Pakistan Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi met Ashcroft on Thursday with a request to delete Pakistan from the INS list. Acting Immigration and Naturalization System (INS) Commissioner Michael Garcia was among the US team who participated in the meeting. Qazi brought two of his senior diplomats with him.

Later, diplomatic sources told Dawn that Ashcroft minced no words in stating that none of the 25 countries now on the list would be taken off.

Last month, the US government included Pakistan on a list of countries whose nationals are required to register with the INS while in the country.

Talking to journalists after the meeting, Qazi said the US registration campaign “is not directed” against Pakistan. It was part of the Bush administration’s strategy to deal with the challenges emerging from the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the US, he added.

The ambassador described his meeting with Ashcroft as “useful”, and said the attorney general was “all praise for President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan government” and recognized Islamabad’s contribution to the war against terror.

The US attorney general urged the Pakistani community not to be afraid of the INS drive because “there will be no discrimination against anyone,” he said.

The American delegation, he went on to say, assured him that the INS list would be further expanded and non-Muslim countries would also be added to it. “Ultimately, we want to register every foreigner entering the US,” Ashcroft said.

The ambassador told Ashcroft that the INS campaign would hurt Pakistanis more than other Muslims because they outnumber people from other Muslim countries.

He asked Ashcroft to allow Pakistani nationals to take advantage of a general amnesty announced by the Clinton administration in 2000.

Qazi also demanded sympathetic treatment for those Pakistani students and workers who had come to America legally but might have later committed minor offences.

He urged the US administration to help divided families, and those who had married American nationals, in legalizing their status in the US.

On Thursday, the US added five more Muslim states to the previous list of 20 countries.

After the addition, the INS list now includes such close American allies as Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait. The world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, has also been added to the list along with Bangladesh.

The ambassador emphasized the need to ensure that those Pakistanis who had cases pending for adjustment of status with the INS, were not detained or put into deportation proceedings, APP adds.

Similarly, he requested that Pakistani nationals holding F1 and H1 visas be treated with dignity and respect and that minor blemishes on their records be condoned.

He proposed that all Pakistanis who were residents of the US and had no blemishes on their records should be given the opportunity to regularize their status.

The ambassador also referred to the large number of Pakistanis affected and requested the attorney general to consider extending the deadline for registration of Pakistanis. This, he said, would enable them to adjust their status.

Qazi urged the US attorney general that Pakistanis whose cases were pending for adjustment of status with the INS, should not be detained or deported, PPI adds.