Senate body for prompt repatriation of Dr Aafia
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior urged the government on Friday to ensure prompt repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqi.
The committee also called upon international human rights organisations and UN Secretary General to exercise their influence to help secure Dr Siddiqi’s release and locate her two missing children. The meeting of the committee was presided over by Senator Talha Mahmood. It condemned the alleged inhumane treatment Dr Aafia Siddiqi continues to suffer.
It passed a resolution urging the government to ensure prompt repatriation of the Pakistani national from the government of the United States, where she was being detained and tried on the basis of unfounded charges.
SOURCE: Thenews.com.pk
ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior on Friday passed a unanimous resolution demanding the government take measures for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
The resolution also asked the Foreign Office (FO) to convey the people’s concern to the United Nations and other human rights organisations. The committee, chaired by Senator Talha Mehmood, reviewed the status of Dr Aafia’s case and the efforts being made by the government to secure her release.
“The Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior urges the Government of Pakistan to ensure the prompt repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani citizen, from the government of the United States where she is being detained and tried on the basis of questionable facts and unfounded charges,” the resolution read. The resolution also reads, “… the committee is deeply concerned about the plight of Dr Aafia’s three dependent children, two of whom are still missing since March 2003.”
Release: Acting Foreign Secretary Haroon Shaukat told the body that the FO was taking measures in this regard.
“The prime minister and the foreign minister have requested US authorities and US Congress in this connection and our government is defending Dr Aafia in a US court,” he said, adding that the government had hired three veteran lawyers for this purpose. Former secretary interior Tasneem Noorani told the committee that no first information report (FIR) had been registered against the kidnapping of Dr Aafia since 2003. Sindh Additional Inspector General Zafar Farooqui told the committee the FIR had been lodged after six and a half years of the incident.
SOURCE: Dailytimes.com.pk
ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior has urged the government and foreign office to take diplomatic steps at high level to seek release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from US jail. The committee met here on Friday under the chair of its chairman Talha Mehmood to review the present status of Dr Aafia Siddiqui case and the efforts being made by the government to secure her release.
Acting foreign secretary, Haroon Shaukat told the committee that foreign office is taking measures for release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui under the directives of the government.
The Prime Minister and foreign minister had made requests to the US authorities and US congress in this connection and the government is defending Dr Aafia Siddiqui in the US court, he pointed out. The services of three veteran lawyers had been hired against the fee of $2 million. Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s brothers, who are settled in Houston were in complete contact with her lawyers, he informed. Chairman of the Committee, Talha Mehmood said that Dr Aafia Siddiqui told that she had never remarried. Aafia Siddiqui during her meeting with him had told that she was kidnapped from Karachi and was shifted to Afghanistan. She was handed over to US after she was kidnapped and interrogated. Dr Aafia Siddiqui disclosed this to me unwillingly, he added. “Aafia Siddiqui told me that her 10-year-old daughter was in the possession of the Americans. The Americans blackmailed her on the issue of her daughter and got signed some papers from her” Talha added.
Aafia Siddiqui asked me to convey her message to the Pakistanis not to hand over any Pakistani citizen to the foreigners as they subject them to severe persecution, Talha indicated. The allegation leveled against Dr Aafia Siddiqui about attacking the US troops was false as how she could attack them along with her three minor children, while US troops had fired three bullets on her, he told. Announcing a unanimous resolution adopted by the committee, Dr Talha Mehmood said that the committee stressed upon the prime minister and government to take steps for immediate release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, recovery of her children and for her medical treatment.
SOURCE: Regionaltimes.com
