SAQIB ALI v. TORTURE CLAIMS APPEAL BOARD

HCAL 472/2022

[2026] HKCFI 3115

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 472 OF 2022

  Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review

NOTIFICATION of the Judge’s decision (Ord 53 r 3)

Following:

Leave to apply for judicial review be refused.

Observations for the Applicant:

1.  The Applicant is a 33-year-old national of Pakistan who entered Hong Kong illegally on 3 April 2020 and was arrested by police on 22 June 2020.  After he was referred to the Immigration Department for investigation, he raised a non-refoulement claim for protection on the basis that if he returned to Pakistan he would be harmed or killed by the father of a traffic accident victim who blamed him for causing the death of his son in the accident.  He was subsequently released on recognizance pending the determination of his claim.

2.  The Applicant was born and raised in Village Jalalia, Tehsil Hazro, District Attock of Punjab, Pakistan.  After leaving school he worked as a farmer, transportation worker and driver in his home village to make his living, and followed his family’s tradition to support the political party Pakistan Muslim League (N) (“PML(N)”) regularly attended their local meetings and activities.

3.  One day in June 2018 during a local election, the Applicant and his fellow PML(N) supporters got into some conflicts with some local supporters of rival Pakistan Tehreek‑e‑Insaf (“PTI”), when one of them by the name of Adnan and who was the son of the village head or Nazim together with his friends attacked the Applicant by punching and kicking him until restrained by other villagers, and that the Applicant was subsequently taken to some local clinic for medical treatments.

4.  Several months later one day in December 2018 while driving near his home village, the Applicant’s car collided with a motorcycle that the rider was thrown off the bike and landed heavily on the ground unconscious, and when the Applicant got out of his car and saw that it was the village head’s son Adnan who was early involved in the fight with him several months ago, the Applicant became concerned for his own safety and therefore fled from the scene to hide in a friend’s place in Rawalpindi.       

5.  However, when he was later told by his family that Adnan had subsequently died from his injuries and that his father the village head had come with his men looking for the Applicant threatening to kill him in revenge for his son’s death, the Applicant became fearful for his life and decided that it was no longer safe to remain in Pakistan, and so on 22 December 2019 he departed for China, and from there he later sneaked into Hong Kong, and upon his arrest by the police he then raised his non-refoulement claim for protection, for which he completed a Non-refoulement Claim Form (“NCF”) on 4 January 2021 and attended screening interview before the Immigration Department with legal representation.             

6.  By a Notice of Decision dated 18 March 2021 the Director of Immigration (“Director”) rejected the Applicant’s claim on all the applicable grounds including risk of torture under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap 115 (“Torture Risk”), risk of his absolute or non-derogable rights under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Cap 383 (“HKBOR”) being violated including right to life under Article 2 (“BOR 2 Risk”), risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under Article 3 of HKBOR (“BOR 3 Risk”), and risk of persecution with reference to the non-refoulement principle under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Persecution Risk”).

7.  In his decision the Director took into account of all the relevant circumstances of the Applicant’s claim and found no substantial grounds for believing that there will be any real risk of him being harmed or killed by Adnan’s father in revenge upon his return to Pakistan due to the absence of or low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from him, that  in any event it was a private dispute between just the 2 of them only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant if resorted to, and that reliable and objective Country of Origin Information (“COI”) show that reasonable internal relocation alternatives are available in Pakistan with a large population of 207 million people spread across a vast territory of more than 796,000 square kilometers that it would not be unduly harsh for the Applicant as an able-bodied young adult with working experience to move to other areas of the country away from his home district in large cities such as Karachi or Islamabad where it would be difficult if not impossible for anyone to locate him.

8.  On 23 March 2021 the Applicant lodged an appeal to the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“Board”) against the Director’s decision, and for which he attended an oral hearing on 22 July 2021 before the Board during which he gave evidence and answered questions raised of his claim by the Adjudicator for the Board.  On 30 May 2022 his appeal was dismissed by the Board which also confirmed the Director’s decision.

9.  In its decision[1] the Board found the Applicant’s claimed risk from the family of the victim of the traffic accident arose from some private and personal dispute between them only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant upon his return to Pakistan as well as reasonable internal relocation alternatives for him to move safely to other parts of the country away from his home district without any risk of being located by anyone that his claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all applicable grounds.    

10.  On 14 June 2022 the Applicant filed his Form 86 for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board’s decision, but no ground for seeking relief was given in his Form or in his supporting affirmation of the same date to which he just attached a copy of the decision but without putting forth any proper ground for his intended challenge, nor was he able to do so at the hearing of his application. As such, and in the absence of any error of law or irrationality or procedural unfairness in his process before the Board or in its decision being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, I do not find any reasonably arguable basis for his intended challenge of the Board’s decision.

11.  As has been repeatedly emphasized by the Court of Appeal, judicial review does not operate as a rehearing of a non-refoulement claim when the proper occasion for the Applicant to present and articulate his claim is in the screening process and interview before the Immigration Department and in the process before the Board where the evaluation of the risk of harm is primarily a matter for the Director and the Board as they are entitled to make such evaluation based on the evidence available to them that the court will not usurp their role as primary decision makers in the absence of any legal error or procedural unfairness or irrationality in their decisions being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, as judicial review is not an avenue for revisiting the assessment by them in the hope that the court may consider the matter afresh: Re Lakhwinder Singh [2018] HKCA 246; Re Daljit Singh [2018] HKCA 328; Re Mudannayakalage Chaminda Pushpa Kumara [2018] HKCA 400; and Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524.

12.  In the Applicant’s case, the Board rejected his claim for the thorough and detailed analysis and reasoning set out in its decision with the benefit of hearing him in his oral evidence and his answers to questions raised of his claim, and in the absence of any error of law or procedural unfairness in his process before the Board or in its decision being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, I do not find any reasonably arguable basis to challenge the finding of the Board.

13.  Furthermore, the fact is that it has also been correctly established by the Director in his decision that the risk of harm in the Applicant’s claim if real is a localized one and that it is not unreasonable or unsafe for him to relocate to other part of Pakistan, a decision also agreed and confirmed by the Board, there is simply no justification to afford him with non‑refoulement protection in Hong Kong: see TK v Jenkins & Anor [2013] 1 HKC 526.                

14.  In the premises, and having considered the decisions of both the Director and the Board with rigorous examination and anxious scrutiny, I do not find any error of law or procedural unfairness in either of them, nor any failure on their part to apply high standards of fairness in their consideration and assessment of the Applicant’s claim.

15.  As I am for the given reasons not satisfied that there is any prospect of success in the Applicant’s intended application for judicial review, I therefore refuse to grant leave and accordingly dismiss his application.

Where leave to apply has been granted, Applicants and their legal advisers are reminded of their obligation to reconsider the merits of their application in the light of the Respondent’s evidence

Form CALL-1