By Linda Kwanjana
Civil society groups led by the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) have demanded that Pakistani-born businessman Mahmood Azhar Chaudhry be stripped of his Malawian citizenship, arrested, and deported to Pakistan.
The leaders, at their news conference in Lilongwe on Wednesday, challenged government authorities, insisting that if Chaudhry cannot be prosecuted, the least the State can do is to deport him.
Board chairperson of HRCC, Robert Mkwezalamba, accused Chaudhry of fraudulently posing for years as a consular representative of Pakistan in Blantyre, despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarifying in a 2022 letter to Ritz Attorneys-at-Law that he never held diplomatic status.
The ministry confirmed that the identity card issued to him did not confer any privileges or immunities under Malawi law.
The civil society leaders pointed out that Chaudhry erected a signpost declaring his residence the “Pakistan Consulate” and drove vehicles bearing CC plates reserved for accredited diplomats.
Chipping in, Michael Kaiyatsa from Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), told journalists that analysts rightly argued that Chaudhry fraudulently enjoyed diplomatic privileges, undermining Malawi’s obligations to foreign states.
“This is not a trivial matter. Misuse of diplomatic symbols is a criminal offence under the Penal Code. If revocation of citizenship and deportation were not pursued, at the very least prosecution for lying to public officers should have followed. Instead, government’s silence has emboldened impunity. We demand action,” he said.
The groups warned that continued inaction by the authorities risks eroding public trust and emboldening further abuses of diplomatic symbols.
Governance experts have previously insisted that Chaudhry must be deported at all costs, arguing that such decisive action would set a precedent demonstrating government’s zero tolerance for fraudsters.
The human rights activists also disclosed that they wrote to the Attorney General last Friday and demanded his action on this and other matters.
