PM vows full support in Dr Aafia's case

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Dr Fouzia Siddiqui — sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui — on Friday and assured her that the government would extend every possible legal and diplomatic assistance in the case of the imprisoned Pakistani academic.

Dr Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was indicted by a New York federal district court in 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 denied.

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.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also written a letter to former US president Joe Biden, seeking clemency for the Pakistani neuroscientist. However, the Democrat did not grant her relief.

Speaking to Dr Aafia's sister, the prime minister said: "The government is in no way negligent regarding the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui."

On the instructions of PM Shehbaz, the government has previously provided diplomatic and legal assistance in the case of Dr Aafia, a press statement issued by the PM Office said.

Furthermore, the prime minister not only wrote a letter to then-US president Biden regarding this issue but also formed a committee headed by Federal Minister for Law and Justice, Azam Nazeer Tarar, to ensure further progress in the matter.

The committee will remain in contact with Dr Fouzia and will work to provide the necessary support in this regard, the statement added.

In June last year, Clive Stafford Smith — American human rights lawyer who represents Dr Siddiqui — told Geo News that his client was being sexually harassed continuously at a jail in Fort Worth, Texas, adding that a security guard raped her two weeks ago as punishment.

"Sexual abuse of Dr Aafia has not stopped so far. She is being consistently subjected to physical harassment," he had disclosed after meeting her at the prison facility this summer.