ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday submitted details of communication with the United States for the repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan heard the petition filed by Aafia’s sister Dr Fowzia Siddiqui through her counsel Sajid Qureshi and nominated the federation of Pakistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Interior Ministry as respondents.
Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, is serving an 86-year prison sentence in the US for attacking American soldiers in Afghanistan.
During the hearing, the IHC bench expressed its displeasure over the lack of progress in Dr Aafia’s matter and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit the record of its recent correspondence with the US embassy in Dr Aafia case.
The court also asked the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the progress on the order of the court issued during its previous hearing.
The officials submitted a brief “routine” report before the court that they have been taking efforts for the repatriation of Dr Aafia. The court expressed its displeasure over the report and disapproved it, terming it dissatisfactory.
The IHC bench said that the Foreign Ministry always presents such brief reports and it has not taken any solid steps so far.
The Foreign Ministry officials also submitted before the court that they have sent some questions to the Ministry of Law and Justice and till getting their answers they could not take any further steps. At this, the court also expressed displeasure and observed that when the Foreign Ministry officials cannot communicate to the US embassy, they write letters to other ministries and it does not result in any solid progress.
The court asked the Foreign Ministry officials to submit before the court their correspondence with the US embassy from the last hearing till now and deferred the hearing for one week.
In 2010, a US federal court in Manhattan had sentenced Dr Aafia to 86 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of US military personnel in Afghanistan. She is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Centre, Carswell, Fort Worth in Texas.
Aafia Siddiqui studied at Boston’s prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and did a PhD in neuroscience at Brandeis University. In early 2003, during the Afghanistan War she came back to Pakistan. In March 2003, she was reportedly named as a courier and financier for Al-Qaeda by Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and was placed on a "wanted for questioning" list by the American FBI.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.