Sherry gets updates on Dr Aafia’s condition
Discusses with her lawyers options to ease her conditions, ultimate repatriation.
WASHINGTON:
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman on Friday met with Tina Foster, the lawyer for Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving a prison term in an American jail.
Foster apprised the ambassador of her client’s situation and discussed with her various options to ease Aafia’s conditions of incarceration, and in the long term, her repatriation to Pakistan.
Ambassador Sherry assured Foster that the Pakistan mission took responsibility to protect the rights of Pakistani citizens, including Dr Aafia, very seriously and would continue to ensure that no Pakistani citizen was deprived of these rights.
Sherry said that the Embassy and the Pakistan consulate general in Houston were in contact with FMC Carswell prison authorities and that she had asked the authorities to provide Dr Aafia with appropriate medical care. Ambassador Sherry also thanked Foster for trying to uphold Dr Aafia’s rights.
She said the Pakistani government had engaged a high-level team of attorneys to provide the best possible legal defence for Dr Aafia.
The embassy has said that it helped re-establish telephonic contact between Dr Aafia and her family in Karachi and also interceded on her behalf to try to ensure that her various other concerns, including those relating to her health, were addressed.
The embassy says it will continue to play this role while also exploring various options to facilitate Dr Afia’s eventual repatriation to her own country. The ambassador also assured the lawyer that she intended to visit Texas and to meet with Dr Aafia.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2012.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman on Friday met with Tina Foster, the lawyer for Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving a prison term in an American jail.
Foster apprised the ambassador of her client’s situation and discussed with her various options to ease Aafia’s conditions of incarceration, and in the long term, her repatriation to Pakistan.
Ambassador Sherry assured Foster that the Pakistan mission took responsibility to protect the rights of Pakistani citizens, including Dr Aafia, very seriously and would continue to ensure that no Pakistani citizen was deprived of these rights.
Sherry said that the Embassy and the Pakistan consulate general in Houston were in contact with FMC Carswell prison authorities and that she had asked the authorities to provide Dr Aafia with appropriate medical care. Ambassador Sherry also thanked Foster for trying to uphold Dr Aafia’s rights.
She said the Pakistani government had engaged a high-level team of attorneys to provide the best possible legal defence for Dr Aafia.
The embassy has said that it helped re-establish telephonic contact between Dr Aafia and her family in Karachi and also interceded on her behalf to try to ensure that her various other concerns, including those relating to her health, were addressed.
The embassy says it will continue to play this role while also exploring various options to facilitate Dr Afia’s eventual repatriation to her own country. The ambassador also assured the lawyer that she intended to visit Texas and to meet with Dr Aafia.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2012.