The US has for months shown an interest in Dr Shakil Afridi being handed over to it. PHOTO: FILE
There is something that rings alarm bells in the announcement by the commissioner for law in the tribal areas, Sahibzada Muhammad Anees, that a new trial was to be ordered for Dr Shakil Afridi, the man sentenced to a 33-year jail term in May 2012 for helping the US CIA determine the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, leading the way for US forces to whisk him away in the May 2, 2011 raid. The senior judicial officer has now ruled that the assistant political agent of Khyber Agency, who found Afridi guilty, had no right to do so. The case will be reheard by the political agent for Khyber, at an undisclosed date. It should be noted the imprisonment of Dr Afridi has caused grave strains in relations between Washington and Islamabad, notably last year. Despite a patch over since then, the US remains eager to secure freedom for the man who led them to a key target.
What is certainly worth noting for us at home is that the changed opinion on Dr Afridi’s sentencing coincides with a federal cabinet decision to step up efforts to secure the repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani scientist convicted to an 86-year jail sentence on terrorism charges in the US, in 2010. At home, demands, notably from religious parties but also other groups, have continued to be voiced for Dr Siddiqui’s return. To help secure this, Pakistan is now set to sign a Council of Europe treaty. It is hard to believe we are seeing nothing more than pure coincidence. The US has for months shown an interest in Dr Shakil Afridi being handed over to it. Logic would suggest a trade-off between the two prisoners may have been planned. Otherwise, it is hard to see why a rethink on Dr Afridi’s sentence would come so many months after his conviction and it seems we are willing to play games of justice to achieve certain ends. This is, in more ways than one, unfortunate, even without going into the details of either case.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2013.
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We know that Dr. Shakil Afridi conspired with the CIA to carry out an illegal act, we know that the CIA carried out an illegal act by conspiring with Dr Afridi, all we know about Dr Aafia Siddiqui is that the US could not find that she had committed any grave crimes so they thought up some petty charge and probably illegally shipped her to the US for an illegal show trial. Unfortunately for the world the US does not worry about a few illegal acts and Pakistan keeps on letting them get away with it. Mr. Raymond Davis, the person who shot two Pakistanis in the back, is a case in point as to how it is all a one way relationship between Pakistan and the US.
Yes Dr.Shakil Afridi for Aafia siddiqui
Let it be
@gp65: Dear gp65, I did get it a little wrong. I really meant to say an extremely diminutive women who supposedly attacked her burly American guards. In regard to treason, I do not know how you measure it. However, if you live in America I can only advise you not to collude with a foreign power. The Americans have a habit, quite rightly, of getting very rough with any of its citizens if they do, and even rougher if all they do is tell the truth. Just ask Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden.
So an exchange is being planned between an extremely diminutive, mistreated women who had done nothing wrong except attacking her burly American guards,and a guy who committed treason.
I am not really sure where the Americans started their scenic helicopter trip to Abbottabad from, but Kabul as a starting point does not appear practical. The whole episode appears to have all the earmarks of a fairy tale, and only low functioning people could possibly believe Washington's version of what happened. However, Dr Afridi helped to make Pakistan look foolish and America, who was complicit, will need to work very hard to overcome Pakistan's outraged feeling of being let down by a so called allied country. The exchange may well take place but America is hardly in a position to call the shots.
Sahibzada Anees is Commissioner Pehawar Division and not Commissioner of Law for all tribal areas adjoining KP. Of course he has the administrative and legal authority for hearing appeals against the sentences given by the Political Authorities of two tribal Agencies, the Khyber Agency and Mohamand Agency, besides the area of Frontier Region attached with Peshawar District.
So they would be exchanging a Terrorist with a guy who helped kill a Terrorist.
Justice in Pakistan remains a farce with the Judiciary better known for injustice rather than upholders of law. Judiciary is not the only one at fault though.
There is absolutely no evidence that Dr Aafi Siddiqui has been involved in terrorism that would stand up in court. Not even in a US court. If the Americans thought they could make a terrorism charge stick they would have done so. The bottom line is that the ISI upon instructions from the CIA transported Dr Siddiqui to Afghanistan. She was then illegally incarcerated in Bagram airbase, and received brutal treatment for a prolonged period. In spite of this the Americans could not establish that she had carried out any terrorist activity, so she was then transported to New York for an American show trial and given 86 years in prison on a doubtful charge of attempted assault on a guard in Afghanistan. All this without any proof other than the guard's word, and no forensic or video evidence, which staggers all credibility. If the Americans want Dr Afridi, and all the indications are that they do, I am reasonably certain they will find a way to exchange the two doctors. After all, when one considers the mayhem which has occurred in Afghanistan what does an assault on one lowly guard mean?. The only problem really is loss of face, but we know that does not bother Pakistan. This only leaves it up to the Americans who made up a ridiculous scenario in the first place .
Rubbish. First off Dr. Afridi was tried and convicted of the crime of helping terrorist - not helping the American's. While the American's would prefer he be released he's your embarrassment not theirs. Further - the USA has never given any indication that it has any desire to "trade" Aafia and there is no record of the USA ever using the European convention to repatriate anyone of significance. Another "made in Pakistan" idea that has no merit.