ISLAMABAD: An adjournment motion will not resolve the Dr Aafia Siddiqui issue and the govnment needs to play its role in repatriating her to Pakistan, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Wednesday.

“The government should understand that our party will continue pursuing this issue, both in and outside parliament, if it fails to bring Dr Aafia back home,” he said in the National Assembly, adding that the House should pass a unanimous resolution in this regard. He said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani should demand Dr Aafia’s freedom from US President Barack Obama.

“The government should inform the House why it has not resolved the issue and bowed down to the US,” he said, adding that the government was answerable to the people of Pakistan and not the US. “At the very least, Dr Aafia should be kept in a Pakistani jail until her trial concludes,” Nisar said. About the deaths of US soldiers in a blast in Lower Dir, he said, “The government should inform the House as to what US soldiers were doing in a school in Lower Dir.” Responding to Nisar’s speech, Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Khurshid Shah said the government was not “indifferent” to the Dr Aafia case and was fully pleading her case with the US. “We have provided full legal assistance to Dr Aafia and will continue struggling for her immediate repatriation,” he said.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/11/2010