Dr Aafia not affected by COVID-19, Sindh High Court told

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who has been incarcerated in the United States (US), is not affected by COVID-19, a federal law officer informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

The statement came on a petition seeking a direction to the federal government for contacting US authorities to provide the proof of well-being of Dr Aafia in the US prison.

Dr Aafia, who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, and did her PhD in genetics, was prosecuted in the US for allegedly attacking US soldiers in Afghanistan and sentenced by a US court to 86 years in prison in September 2010.

The petitioner, Dr Fouzia, had submitted in her petition that Dr Aafia, a resident of Karachi, along with her three children, was allegedly kidnapped in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in March 2003 when she was leaving for Rawalpindi. The petitioner had maintained that the abducted family was handed over to US agencies by Pakistani law enforcement agencies in violation of the constitution.

Dr Fouzia had requested the high court to direct the government to discharge their lawful duty assigned to them by the constitution and international charters and treaties and contact the US government to provide the proof of well-being of Dr Aafia by arranging a live video call of her with her family and submit her health report.

The petitioner’s counsel, Irfan Aziz, had submitted that Dr Aafia was incarcerated in FMC CARSWELL Fort Worth, Texas USA. He had said, she was earlier allowed to talk to her family members by telephone after the payment of fee but for the last three years, she was not allowed to talk to her family members.

The lawyer had submitted that there were reports in the US media with regard to the outbreak of coronavirus in US prisons, and expressed fear about the life of Dr Aafia.

He had submitted that the petitioner had communicated to the foreign affairs secretary about having no access to contact Dr Aafia for three years. He had informed the SHC that the petitioner had also referred to the US prison manual, according to which, the prisoners were allowed 300 minutes of phone calls as well as video calls and four-hour visits per week but Dr Aafia had been denied all these rights.

The counsel had further argued that due to the pandemic, various prisoners of different countries had been released by the US government and requested the SHC to issue a notice to the ministry of foreign affairs to come up with reply as to what efforts had been made by them for the release of Pakistani prisoners from prisons in foreign countries.

He had also requested the SHC to direct the federal government and ministry of foreign affairs to make arrangements for a telephonic call of Dr Aafia with her family members and also call her health report through the US authorities.

A federal law officer appeared before the SHC on Thursday and submitted that Dr Aafia was not affected by COVID-19. He submitted that the foreign ministry will file a reply with regard to the disruption of the telephone contact between the detainee and her family members, and requested the SHC to grant some time for that.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar directed the federal law officer to ensure that the reply would be filed on the next hearing without any further extension of time, and adjourned the matter until April 24.

In May 2013, the SHC had disposed of a petition regarding Dr Aafia with a direction to the federal government to explore means and make efforts within reasonable time towards a bilateral agreement for her release in the light of two conventions between Pakistan and the US.