Reduced jail term: Dr Afridi challenges verdict

Member of legal team says defence team still has reservations against ruling, will challenge it before FATA tribunal.

PESHAWAR: Dr Shakil Afridi, jailed in May 2012 on charges of conducting a fake vaccination campaign in Abottabad in order to aid a CIA mission to track Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has moved the FATA Tribunal challenging the verdict of Frontier Crimes Regulation Commissioner who reduced his jail term from 33 years to 23 years.

On March 15 this year, Commissioner Peshawar Captain (retd) Munir Azam, who also serves as the Frontier Crime Regulation (FCR) commissioner, deleted Section 123-A of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 1860, which reduced Afridi’s sentence to 23 years and his fine to Rs220,000.

A member of Afridi’s legal team said the defence team still had reservations against the ruling and would challenge it before the Fata tribunal.

A review petition was filed by Afridi through his panel of lawyers including Advocates Qamar Nadeem, Abdul Latif Afridi and Sartaj Khan in the FATA Tribunal terming the commissioner’s judgment ‘unlawful’.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2014.