PHC directs Interior Ministry to submit reply in Shakil Afridi case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Interior secretary to submit a reply in a writ petition against the expected handover of Dr Shakil Afridi to the United States.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued the notice to the secretary interior. He was directed to submit a reply to the questions raised in the petition before the next hearing.

The bench was hearing the petition filed by a senior lawyer, Muhammad Khurshid Khan. He had sought the court’s directions for both the federal and provincial governments not to shift Dr Shakil Afridi to a foreign country or any other jail from Peshawar Central Prison, or inform the court before any such decision.

The petition was filed in 2017 after rumours surfaced that the doctor might be sent abroad and handed over to the US government.

During the hearing, Khurshid Khan informed the court that Dr Shakil Afridi had been shifted to Punjab province during the pendency of the case. He said that in the petition, he had also requested the court to restrain the government from shifting Shakil Afridi from the Peshawar jail as not only his appeal against conviction is pending in the Fata Tribunal, but also he could be kept in the Peshawar jail legally.

He stated his handover to the United States would be a violation of law of the land.

The petitioner submitted that Shakil Afridi was convicted for links with terrorists and is a Pakistani citizen. How another country was demanding a jailed prisoner of Pakistan, he questioned.

Dr Shakil Afridi, a former agency surgeon of Khyber Agency, who was taken into custody on May 22, 2011, on suspicion of helping Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trace Osama bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad.