PM Shehbaz writes to US President for Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s release from jail.
Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif has written a letter to the United States President Joe Biden, seeking pardon for Dr Aafia Siddiqui who has been suffering torture American prison for many years.
It was revealed when Islamabad High Court’s Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan was hearing a petition filed by Fauzia Siddiqui seeking Dr. Aafia’s release from an American prison and her repatriation.
Additional Attorney General Manzoor Iqbal appeared in court.
In his letter, written to Biden on October 13, the PM wrote about seeking the US president’s intervention in the issue that deserves to be viewed with compassion, as Siddiqui remains jailed at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Texas.
She has been serving an 86-year sentence there, without the possibility of parole, imposed by the Southern District Court of New York.
“Now 52 years old, she has spent approximately sixteen years behind bars in the US,” PM Shehbaz wrote in the letter.
Dr Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was indicted by a New York federal district court in September 2008 on charges of attempted murder and assault, stemming from an incident during an interview with the US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan — charges that she rejected.
After 18 months in detention, she was tried and convicted in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.
She has since been imprisoned in the US.
The premier further mentioned that numerous Pakistani officials have paid consular visits to Siddiqui at the prison facility over the years and have raised “serious concerns about the treatment she has received”.
The treatment meted out to her has severely impacted her “already fragile mental and frail physical health”.
“In fact, they even fear that she could take her own life,” the prime minister mentioned in the letter.
PM Shehbaz further praised Biden for passionately fighting for the rights of US citizens, particularly those stranded or held captive abroad.
Therefore, the premier added, it is his “solemn duty” as Pakistan’s premier to intervene when it becomes absolutely necessary to ensure a citizen’s well-being, particularly when the circumstances are as dire as they are in her case.
“Keeping these facts in view, I request you, Mr President, to kindly exercise your constitutional authority and accept Dr Siddiqui’s clemency petition and order her release, strictly on humanitarian grounds,” he wrote urging the American president to pardon the neuroscientist.
The prime minister added that he trusts Biden to accord the most serious consideration that the request deserves.
“Her family, and millions of my fellow citizens join me in seeking your blessings for a favorable outcome of this request,” the prime minister wrote, concluding the letter.
Commenting Premier Shehbaz’s letter, Clive Stafford Smith — American human rights lawyer who represents Dr Siddiqui — told Geo.tv that the letter is “very welcome and very heartfelt from the PM”.
“I have been pushing for something like this but it is only the first step,” he said, adding that he hopes to meet the Pakistani delegation in Washington by the middle of November to make the rounds of the White House and other politicians.
“The 10 weeks between the election on November 5th and inauguration on January 20th are the ten weeks when you can get something done in the US as Biden is still president, but he has nothing to lose,” he said.
