Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: State Minister of Foreign Affairs Malik Ammad on Thursday assured the National Assembly (NA) that the government would fully defend Dr Aafia Siddiqui in the final hearing.

While talking about Aafia’s conviction in the National Assembly (NA), Ammad said the evidence against her was insubstantial, and the statements of the two witnesses contradictory. He stated the government was laying emphasis on her release and that the president, prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan had been addressing this issue at every public forum.

“It was due to the government’s efforts that a delegation of Pakistani politicians succeeded in meeting Aafia. It is because of our government that she was able to contact her family. This way, her son was recovered, and three well reputed legal experts hired on her request”, Ammad said.

Earlier, PML-Q leader Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat had said that the Aafia issue would not be resolved through rhetoric and adjournment motions. “The government should constitute a parliamentary delegation comprising seasoned parliamentarians from both houses (Upper and Lower), so that it can visit the US to hold talks with the US administration in this regard,” he proposed.

Faisal also said he was the only parliamentarian who had raised the Aafia issue with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her recent visit to Pakistan. “The Aafia issue would not be resolved by making fiery speeches in the house, and burning effigies of the US president on the streets,” he stated.

Faisal added that recently a parliamentary delegation had visited the NATO Headquarters and raised this issue with NATO officials.

Meanwhile, politician Zafar Baig Bithani said that if there was any charge on Aafia, she should be tried in Pakistan rather than in America. He said the government should take strict action against those who had handed over Aafia to the US.

SOURCE : Dailytimes.com.pk

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