LAHORE: The Lahore High Court disposed of a petition on Monday directing the federal government to take effective measures for the release and repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from US detention.

Dr Aafia has been convicted by a US court with attempted killing of US agents while in detention in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry directed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to evolve a strategy in consultation with the Law Ministry to take measures, if viable, for the release of Dr Aafia. The petition was filed by Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey.

The judge has already disposed of a petition filed by Mr Jaffrey seeking the doctor’s release and repatriation through the International Court of Justice. The judge ordered the Foreign Ministry to collect evidences from Barrister Jaffrey about Dr Aafia’s alleged arrest in Karachi in 2002 and refer it to her lawyers in the US where she was facing a trial at that time.

He said the Pakistani government did not fight the case properly in the US Court which led to her conviction.

Qadeer: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Monday filed an application in the Lahore High Court, challenging government’s ban on water and medical supplies to him under the garb of a court order.

The application was filed through counsel Barrister Syed Ali Zafar stating that although arguments in the main case for release of Dr A.Q Khan was going on, the government once again stopped Dr Khan from going outside his residence even to visit his brother who was critically ill in a hospital.

The counsel said that not only Dr Khan’s family and friends were being stopped from visiting him but the government in an unprecedented move also restricted the supply of water to him and stopped his doctor and medical staff to visit him which could severely jeopardize his health.

He alleged that all this was being done under the garb of a recent interim LHC’s order in which the court had directed the federal government to give security to the scientist.

Barrister Zafar submitted that Dr Khan was facing a most serious breach of even basic fundamental rights and that this could not be the intention of the LHC when it passed recent orders.

The counsel prayed that the government be directed not to dictate the terms of security to his client in the meanwhile.

Nasira Iqbal: Lahore High Court Bar Association president Justice Nasira Iqbal (retired) has fully endorsed the statement of the chief justice of Pakistan to the effect that quick justice can be administered only when courts have full strength of judges.

In a statement issued on Monday, Ms Nasira said the LHCBA had already passed several resolutions urging the government to forthwith fill the vacancies in the LHC.

She said lawyers and litigants were suffering hardships on account of dearth of judges.

The LHCBA, she said, again urged the government to fill the vacancy of judges within a week as the LHC was presently running with one-thirds strength of judges.

She said without filling vacant slots of judges, the judiciary could not deliver justice to the litigant public for which they struggled in the movement for restoration of independent judiciary.

LHCBA secretary Muqtadir Akhtar Shabbir also urged the government to appoint judges in the LHC from among members of the bar without considering their group affiliation.

SOURCE : Dawn.com

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