Pakistan conveys concerns to US about Dr Aafia

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has raised the issue of "respecting the human and legal rights" of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three jailed in the US for almost a decade, with US Ambassador Alice Wells who visited Islamabad on Tuesday.

"Government of Pakistan has been raising the issue of Dr Afia Siddiqui with US authorities regularly. Pakistan's CG (consul general) in Houston pays Consular visits to Dr Siddiqui, periodically, to inquire after her well-being and conveys her messages to Dr Afia's family if any," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

"The issue of respecting the human and legal rights of Dr Afia Siddiqui was also raised in the meeting at Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Ambassador Alice Wells on November 6," it confirmed.

"The US side has promised to look into our request." The statement further read that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would soon meet sister of Dr Afia Siddiqui in Islamabad. Wells, the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, was in Islamabad on Tuesday to follow up on Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington last month.