43 Facts About Ansar Burney

Ansar Burney is a Pakistani human and civil rights activist and former Federal Minister for Human Rights in Pakistan's cabinet from 2007 to 2008.

Ansar Burney graduated with a master's in law from Karachi University.

Ansar Burney is widely credited as being one of the first people to introduce the concept of human rights in Pakistan since 1980.

Ansar Burney is the son of Syed Mukhtar Ahmed Burney.

Ansar Burney graduated with a Master's of Law degree from Karachi University.

Ansar Burney's ancestors migrated from western Uttar Pradesh to Pakistan.

Ansar Burney was a prominent student leader with the People's Student Federation in his youth, during the 1970s, and was known to speak out for justice, human dignity, and civil rights.

In 1979, Ansar Burney was arrested for a third time and detained for a month.

On his release, and the completion of his law degree in 1980, Ansar Burney set up the Prisoners Aid Society, Commission Against Terrorism and the Bureau of Missing and Kidnapped Children in Karachi.

Ansar Burney eventually formed Ansar Burney Trust International with offices in Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Mirpur, Quetta, Washington DC, and London.

The Ansar Burney Trust is a non-governmental, non-political, and nonprofit organisation which initially worked for the release of illegally and unlawfully detained prisoners, the welfare of prisoners, reforms in prisons and mental asylums, and to raise a voice against corruption and to trace missing and kidnapped children.

On 16 November 2007, Ansar Burney was sworn in as Pakistan's caretaker federal minister for the newly established Human Rights ministry.

Ansar Burney was in charge of establishing the ministry, creating a national commission on human rights, and overseeing the general elections in Pakistan.

Ansar Burney pushed for further reforms to prisons, government-controlled orphanages, and shelter homes for women.

Ansar Burney has been involved in the release of thousands of prisoners from prisons across the world.

Ansar Burney had been arrested under the Lunacy Act 37 years earlier.

Ansar Burney was detained without ever being charged or presented before a court.

Ansar Burney was finally released after the efforts of the Prisoners Aid Society.

Ansar Burney was eventually transferred to a mental asylum within a prison and had no contact with his family for 21 years.

Ansar Burney was released in 1987 after he was discovered by Burney of the Prisoners Aid Society.

In 1970, when someone noticed his continued incarceration, he was released but was rearrested in Karachi where he remained until 1987 when he was discovered by Ansar Burney who took this matter to the Sindh High Court, and he was finally released.

Ansar Burney was spotted by Ansar Burney during a visit to the prison and released in 1988.

Ansar Burney was released in 1991 at age 70 only after she was discovered by Burney who took up her situation with Sindh Governor, Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, who ordered her immediate release.

Ansar Burney was discovered by Burney during a trip to the asylum and released in 1992.

For many years, as a human rights lawyer and expert on the Pakistani legal system, and well aware of its flaws, Ansar Burney has appealed to both the Pakistani Supreme Court and various presidents of Pakistan to commute the death sentence of all condemned prisoners to life imprisonment.

Ansar Burney is an internationally recognised campaigner against human trafficking and slavery, and has been working against such practices in Pakistan, the Middle East, and Africa for decades.

Ansar Burney is particularly credited as the man whose efforts led to the end of child slavery in the form of child camel jockeys in the Middle East, resulting in thousands of children being freed and returned to their homes in South Asia and Africa.

Ansar Burney is quick to point out that much more needs to be done to rescue, rehabilitate, and repatriate thousands of trafficked children throughout the Gulf region.

Ansar Burney continues on his mission to end any such existing practices across the Middle East.

Ansar Burney campaigned on behalf of the victims' families, raising money for the families, and calling for repatriation of the victims' bodies.

The Ansar Burney Trust was informed through volunteers and launched a campaign for the return of the men, who were finally returned a few months later.

Ansar Burney travelled to the UAE, Egypt, Somalia, and India in a bid to secure the release of the crew members.

Ansar Burney finally succeeded and the vessel was released on 13 June 2011.

In November 2012, after the Government of India stated that Pakistan had refused to claim the body of slain alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab, Ansar Burney offered to bring back the body to Pakistan citing humanitarian reasons.

On 22 August 2011, Ansar Burney Buney announced that following the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations at the end of Ramadan, he would initiate an anti-corruption movement in Pakistan based on the popular movement of Anna Hazare in India.

Ansar Burney was the first man to receive the Pakistani National Civil Award Sitara-i-Imtiaz on 23 March 2002.

In recognition of his two decade international campaign against human trafficking and child slavery in the Middle East in the form of child camel jockeys, Ansar Burney was declared an Anti-Human Trafficking Hero by the then-United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and in the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report by the United States Department of State.

In 2011, due to his untiring efforts for the release of MV Suez and its crew from Somali pirates and his great achievements in the field of human rights for the last three decades, Ansar Burney was awarded the prestigious MKRF award by the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman Foundation.

In 2012, in recognition of his humanitarian work in Pakistan and abroad, Ansar Burney was awarded the Diamond Award by the Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan MP, on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Ansar Burney received this honour on 23 March 2013 at the Presidency in Islamabad.

Ansar Burney has been the recipient of over 250 national and international awards over the last three decades.

Ansar Burney has received many awards from Pakistan's institutes; recently, he was seen in UET of Lahore.

Ansar Burney published his autobiography, Awaaz: Echoes of Freedom and Justice, in 2024.