Dr Shakil Afridi. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
The incarcerated surgeon allegedly helped the US in tracking down Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad in May 2011.
Afridi’s case has now been sent back to the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) commissioner.
The tribunal comprised of chairman Shah Wali Khan and members Pir Fida Muhammad and Akbar Khan.
A group of lawyers representing Afridi had filed a review petition at the Fata Tribunal, demanding enhanced rights to defend their client under the law and the local custom.
The tribunal had reserved its decision on the review petition on December 9 but announced the verdict today.
Afridi was first tried by the Khyber Agency administration and given a 33-year sentence for aiding members of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam. That sentence was overturned by the late FCR Commissioner Sahibzada Muhammad Anis in August this year and the case was handed back to the Khyber Agency political agent for a retrial. Later, a resident of Bara had filed a murder case against Afridi for allegedly killing a patient of his around eight years ago.
After the 33-year sentence was overturned by the commissioner, a group of lawyers representing Afridi had expressed reservations and filed the review petition.
Moreover, this week will witness the initiation of the murder trial against Afridi which begins on December 20 inside the Peshawar Central Jail and will be headed by the agency’s political agent.
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Pakistanis and NA are more worried about the justice execution of war crimes convict and Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Bangladesh but overlook the injustice imprisonment of Dr Shakil Afridi.
He should be released immediately instead of playing politics with a person who saved scores of lives while helping to eliminate a mass murderer.
disposes OF appeal... not OFF...