KARACHI:
We call her the daughter of our nation, yet Aafia Siddiqui has become a symbol of our deepest failure. A Pakistani citizen abducted, disappeared and sentenced in a sham trial to 86 years in a US prison, Aafia remains imprisoned at FMC Carswell, where she has endured years of abuse, degradation and neglect. The Pakistani government has long professed to champion her cause but now, in a shocking turn, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declared before the Islamabad High Court that it has done “enough” for Aafia and that her legal battle must end. All this despite the fact that Aafia faces sexual assault daily, is denied medical care, and is blocked from meeting with an imam even during Ramazan. This is not injustice — this is abandonment.
The US Consulate in Houston refuses to act on Aafia’s reports of abuse. Pakistani officials have ignored medical records that detail her suffering. Even the Pakistani Prime Minister’s letter was met with silence from President Joe Biden of the US. One glaring example of the government’s inability to act is its claim that a prisoner swap is impossible due to the absence of a legal framework between Pakistan and the US. Prisoner swaps are political decisions. The US has made such exchanges with adversaries like Russia and Iran, and Pakistan can surely take advantage of its leverage.
Last year, Aafia’s legal team filed a lawsuit exposing the constitutional violations Aafia has suffered through. The Pakistan government has not filed a single document in her defence — not even an amicus brief against sexual assault, medical neglect or religious suppression. Even obtaining her inmate account, crucial to proving her indigency, has become a legal battle the Pakistan government refuses to join.
Aafia has spent over 5,000 days in prison for crimes she did not commit. The evidence of her innocence continues to grow. We must not abandon her to die in silence.
Maria Kari
USA
