Jail an option for deported Pakistani student Salman Ghumman: Islamabad

THE fate of a Melbourne accounting student deported to Pakistan on security grounds remained unclear last night

THE fate of a Melbourne accounting student deported to Pakistan on security grounds remained unclear last night after authorities in Islamabad conceded he could be detained under the country's strict anti-terrorism laws.

Salman Ghumman was deported yesterday morning after he was deemed to be a security threat by ASIO and his student visa was cancelled last month.

Mr Ghumman was flown out of Australia on a Thai Airways flight from Melbourne and was due to arrive in Islamabad about 10.30pm last night (4.30am today, AEDT).

An Australian Immigration spokeswoman said Mr Ghumman had left Australia "voluntarily" -- after the department cancelled his visa and refused to grant him a bridging visa.

Mr Ghumman, who had been held for several weeks at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre, has protested his innocence and said before his departure he had no idea why he had been labelled a security threat.

But he chose not to contest the ruling from Maribyrnong -- a process he had been advised could take more than a year -- and opted instead to return to Pakistan and fight for the right to resume his studies in Australia.

His father, a retired career Pakistan Air Force officer, said he was concerned for his son's safety and feared he could be picked up and detained by security officials on arrival in Pakistan.

A spokesman for Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency said Mr Ghumman's fate would depend on what information had been passed by Australian officials to Pakistani authorities. "If the Australian government or intelligence services have asked us to keep tabs on him, then he will definitely be questioned and probably detained. But if he is just a normal person coming back voluntarily and not deported as such, then I don't know," he said.

A senior official with Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency international co-operation wing said it was standard practice for Pakistani authorities to be alerted to a deportation by the former host country.

"Our immigration authorities at the airport will be aware well in time of his arrival and he will be asked some questions about why he is being deported," the official said. "Any documents on him will be checked and then a decision made by the relevant law enforcement officers."

The Australian Immigration spokeswoman said: "Australia adheres to its international obligations and does not involuntarily return people where they would face persecution or danger in the country they're being returned to." But she added: "Criminal investigations are a matter for Pakistani authorities."

Mr Ghumman's father said he feared his son had been unfairly targeted because the family had donated money to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a banned organisation believed to be the charity arm of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba.