ASIF MEHMOOD
LONDON: Chairman of the Association of Pakistani Lawyers (APL) has accused that Western media has blacked out Dr Aafia’s conviction and reactions including reservations on trial which shows that Western media is always ready to rub it under the carpet, some of the worst human rights abuses when it comes to their national interest.
Barrister Amjad Malik said that APL appreciated Lord Ahmed’s stance on Dr Aafla’s
case and that APL will support any drive Lord Ahmed starts to campaign, and seek fair trial for Dr Aafla Siddiqui, along with Pak media which will remain at forefront to keep the link and drive active at both home and away. He said it is strange that Dr Aafia first labeled as No.7 on the wanted list of al Qaeda and later was charged and tried for minor criminal offences, thus she never had the opportunity to wipe out the stigma attached to her name being associated with the outfit which in itself is a criminal offence.
Malik said: `our petition to US President Barack Obama and Foreign Secretary, Senator Hillary Clinton is that US govt must consider withdrawing charges against Dr Aafla
Siddiqui and her repatriation to Pakistan forthwith, is just and based on equality and justice which must be seen to be done and in this current case rules of natural justice are not met and Dr Aafia has been left at the helms of a jury of 12 men from victim community of 9/11 who could never have found her `not guilty’ if there is over whelming Western media publicity that she is an associate of Bin laden trial’.
Amjad said that US must set up a commission to adjudicate the questions of true facts surrounding Dr Aafla’s arrest, allegations of torture and mal- treatment at Bagram airfield, her two missing children, and the issue of extra judicial and extra territorial confinement and imprisonment at Bagram where there are allegations that CIA paid huge money to Pak officials for making successful arrests and Gen. Musharraf accepted that fact in his book, (In the Line of Fire at Page 237).
He said that Dr Aafia is a female, Muslim lady from Pakistan who is a highly educated
(PhD from Brandeis University 2001) and has been either bought via CIA and or arrested in dubious circumstances at Pakistan and or Afghanistan; she has been strip searched, allegedly maltreated, interrogated mostly without lawyers proper examination of a female doctor, and or Consulate access at Afghanistan and has been shifted to US without her consent.
Chairman APL said that Pakistani media has a crucial role to highlight this issue as
incumbent leaders will try to let it die down and fade away with the passage of time as
they did with the issue of 10 Pakistani students detained in `operation path away’ who were arrested on April 8th 2009 in UK and though 8 returned but two of them (Abid Naseer & Ahmed Faraz Khan both from NWFP) refused to return voluntarily and are in category A imprisonment since April fight- ing to clear their name~ but are forgotten in Pak Governmental records & files and soon Pakistani media lost interest in them.
Their appeals are listed on March 8 2010 in London when it will be nearly 11 months of
their detention, he added.
Source: The Nation
Date:2/9/2010
