Federal Court Decisions

Date: 20010309

Docket: IMM-5775-99

Neutral Citation: 2001 FCT 173

BETWEEN:

                                   BABAR ABBAS MALIK

                                                                                         Applicant

                                               - and -

         THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

                                                                                     Respondent

                                  REASONS FOR ORDER

NADON J.

[1]    The applicant seeks to set aside a decision of the Refugee Board (the "Board") dated November 12, 1999, pursuant to which the Board concluded that the applicant was not a Convention refugee.

[2]    The applicant, born on December 12, 1968, is a citizen of Pakistan. He arrived in Canada on February 8, 1998, and claimed refugee status on the following day in Vancouver, British Columbia. He claims a well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his religion (Shia) and of his political opinion as a member of the Tehrik-e-Jaffria (the "TJP"), a religious and political organization.

[3]    The Board concluded that there was no more than a mere possibility that the applicant would suffer persecution should he return to Pakistan. In coming to this conclusion, the Board considered, inter alia, that the applicant had not suffered physical harm at the hands of the SSP (Sipah-i-Sahaba, a Sunni organization) since 1986, that the applicant had not been active in the TJP since 1993, and that he had never taken part in the political activities of the TJP.

[4]    Although the Board noted that letters filed by the applicant raised concerns with respect to the credibility of this evidence, it did not deal with this issue because of its conclusion that the applicant's fear of persecution was not well-founded.

[5]    After carefully reviewing the evidence, both written and oral, I am of the view that the Board did not make any reviewable error in reaching its conclusion. The Board may have gotten its numbers wrong when it observed that the Shia population of Pakistan amounted to 20 to 25% of the total population, but this error is not, in my view, sufficient to justify an intervention on my part.

[6]                I have no doubt that, on the record before it, it was reasonably open to the Board to conclude that there existed no more than a mere possibility that the applicant would be persecuted should he return to Pakistan. None of the arguments put forward by the applicant have convinced me that I should intervene and set aside the Board's decision.

[7]                For these reasons, this application for judicial review shall be dismissed.

                                                                                        Marc Nadon

                                                                                                JUDGE

OTTAWA, Ontario

March 9, 2001.