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| Musharraf’s son accused of pocketing bounty for Dr Aafia |
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: Another debate has erupted after Barrister Iqbal Jafferi’s petition in the Islamabad High Court in which he has submitted that a huge amount of bounty money was received for handing over Dr Aafia Siddiqui to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Barrister Jafferi, in his petition filed on August 8, has accused President Pervez Musharraf’s son, Bilal Musharraf, of taking the bounty money that the FBI had announced for the head of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
The petition was filed to ask the court to direct the government to get Aafia back from the Americans and if the Pakistani doctor was guilty then she must be put on trial in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a lawyer from the USA who knows Dr Aafia since her university days, told this correspondent on condition of anonymity that a huge sum of money was pocketed while handing over the FBI-wanted Dr Aafia Siddiqui to the US forces. She said that it was not known who collected that reward money from the FBI but someone gathered dollars for Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
She said that though the charges against Dr Aafia were ‘rubbish’ but the Americans would never let her go. “We have the examples of Aimal Kansi and an Italian underworld don after whose execution Italy stopped extraditing prisoners to the USA,” said the American lawyer adding, “Aafia has been put in a New York jail; was produced before a judge in New York and would be heard before a judge in New York while the public sentiment in New York was so anti-Aafia that the dailies have started calling Aafia a suicide bomber.”
She said that under such circumstances it was not possible to conduct a fair trial and the government in Pakistan must tell the US government to extradite its citizen to her homeland. The lawyer from the USA said that the issue was not of the innocence of Dr Aafia but in fact a trial could not be fair in New York.
Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, while talking to The News said that she would not blame anyone for what has happened to her sister. “From me and my family, we do not blame any Muslim for what has been happening to our sister for the last five years; Our Allah will take revenge for us,” said the weeping lady adding, “The government had been in contact with us during the last five years and has been saying that Dr Aafia would be back in a few days.” She said that the government had been informing the aggrieved family that Dr Aafia was fine with her three children but the way she appeared in the court in New York has shaken the entire ill-fated family. “Now we have been told that all the three children were fine but looking at Aafia’s condition we fear that the children might be in danger,” said the sister of Dr Aafia.
She said that the way the whole nation has supported them, especially the media, and she had become more proud of being a Pakistani. “It is immaterial who handed over Aafia to the FBI but I am proud of being a Pakistani after looking at the support from the civil society and the media and my heart wishes that I should go out and shout at the top of my voice that I am a proud Pakistani, a nation which has stood by its daughter.”
She said that she did not know if anyone has taken the bounty money for Dr Aafia and would not point fingers at anyone. “What I want is to bring Aafia back to Pakistan and I beg the media and the government to do something for Aafia and bring her back,” Dr Fauzia Siddiqui said adding, “the Americans would send her to jail for 40 years then what would we do? Aafia was not a green card holder then why she was being tried in New York?”
Meanwhile, Amna Masood Janjua, the lady representing the heirs of missing persons in Pakistan, said that Musharraf has taken money for handing over innocent Pakistanis to American forces and he has admitted it in his book too. She said that the government should stand up for the daughter of the soil and bring Aafia back to Pakistan.
Barrister Iqbal Jafferi, who is 70 years old and suffers from prostate cancer, was not available for comments.
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