Awaiting action: Seven months on, Dr Shakil Afridi’s case hangs in the balance

Hearing after hearing, Khyber Agency PA fails to produce case record

PESHAWAR: As another date of hearing passed by on December 18, Dr Shakil Afridi’s hopes for justice diminished further. Afridi, who is said to have aided the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Bin Laden manhunt, was charged with having links with banned outfits and was sentenced to 33 years initially. Although the sentence was reduced to 23 years by Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) commissioner in 2014, the case has since moved from one authority to another.

Afridi had challenged the reduced sentence in the FATA Tribunal which issued directives to the Khyber Agency political administration to produce a complete case record. Over seven months have passed since the initial issuance of orders and despite several hearing dates going by, the record remains unproduced.



Afridi had challenged the decision with the contention that the FCR commissioner failed to comply by the orders previously issued by the appellate forum.

Passing the buck

“Whenever we attend the proceedings we are told that a final chance has been given to the political administration, which pays no heed,” says Qamar Nadeem, Dr Shakil’s counsel, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Nadeem added at every hearing, the counsel of the administration requests the tribunal for an extension on the pretext of incomplete documents. “We are even told that in the absence of cooperation, arrest warrants of the respondents can also be issued but no action is taken,” he said.

Nadeem said the FATA Tribunal is the highest forum to appeal against any orders of the commissioner and Afridi has nowhere else to go with his grievances.

The provincial government had requested the federal government to shift Afridi from Central Prison Peshawar numerous times in the past but action is still expected.

On March 15, 2014, the FCR commissioner maintained Afridi’s sentence announced by the Bara assistant political agent, with the deletion of one section of charges after which the term was reduced to 23 years.

Later, Afridi moved FATA Tribunal against the judgment, saying the FCR commissioner failed to write a detailed judgement and remove ambiguity from the case.

The aspect of the case that draws particular attention is the fact that he was arrested on charges of carrying out a fake vaccination campaign but convicted for having links with a banned militant organisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2015.