Pakistan couldn't secure Dr Aafia's release from US prison despite efforts, says Dar

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has asserted that the government’s efforts to persuade United States leadership to release Dr Aafia Siddiqui "could not bear fruit" as she continues to languish in an American prison since 2008.

Dar, who is also the foreign minister, made these remarks Dar while speaking at the international conference "China 75: A Journey of Development, Transformation, and Global Leadership" on Tuesday.

He pointed out that the federal government failed to secure Siddiqui’s release from the US prison.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, requesting to pardon Dr Aafia on humanitarian grounds as the "US presidents usually grant certain pardons before relinquishing the office". 

“A three-member committee had been formed to meet the US parliamentarians to lobby in favour of her pardon, release, and sending her back to Pakistan,” the minister added.

Dr Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, has been serving an 86-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Texas, without the possibility of parole, imposed by the Southern District Court of New York.

She was indicted in September 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.

In the letter to US president, the prime minister sought his intervention in the matter that deserves to be viewed with compassion, saying: "Now 52 years old, she has spent approximately sixteen years behind bars in the US."

The premier further mentioned that numerous Pakistani officials have paid consular visits to Siddiqui at the prison facility over the years and have raised "serious concerns about the treatment she has received".

The treatment meted out to her has severely impacted her "already fragile mental and frail physical health".

"In fact, they even fear that she could take her own life," PM Shehbaz mentioned in the letter.

Therefore, the premier added, it is his "solemn duty" as Pakistan's premier to intervene when it becomes absolutely necessary to ensure a citizen’s well-being, particularly when the circumstances are as dire as they are in her case.

In June this 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.