EU snubs request for treaty accession

KARACHI:

The European Union (EU) has not accepted Pakistan government’s request for accession to the Council of Europe Convention on Transfer of Sentenced Persons treaty to facilitate repatriation of convicted neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui from the US.

This was stated in a report submitted to the Sindh High Court (SHC) during hearing of a petition filed by Dr Aafia’s family seeking orders for Pakistani government to seek her repatriation from the US.

The statement was filed by the deputy attorney general in response to an application seeking contempt proceedings against the interior secretary for not complying with the court’s orders to make efforts for return of Dr Aafia.

The law officer filed a copy of the letter addressed by the Foreign Secretary Aziz Ahmed Chaudhry to the interior ministry in February this year.

The secretary said on a summary submitted by the interior ministry, the cabinet granted its approval on August 23, 2013 for submitting a request for accession to the EU’s Convention of Transfer of Sentenced Persons “to facilitate the transfer of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from the US to Pakistan to complete her prison.” Subsequently, his ministry approached the EU through the Pakistani embassy in Brussels for its concurrence to the proposal. “However, the EU did not accept our proposal for accession without assigning any reason,” he said.

The foreign secretary said now the second option was under consideration.

“We are of the view that the second option, which is available in accession to the Organisation of American States Inter-American Convention of Serving of Criminal Sentences Abroad 1993, may be considered in deference to the request by the family of Dr Aafia Siddiqui,” he wrote.


Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2015.