KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the federal authorities to respond to the plea seeking repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who headed a division bench, granted the application filed by Dr Fouzia Siddiqui through which she sought urgent hearing of the petition. While issuing notice to the federal government to file reply, the court set October 25 for the next hearing.
In the plea, she submitted that Dr Afia was unlawfully abducted along with her children while she was on her way to the airport to travel to Islamabad in March 2003. Her sister and her children remained missing for five years but later it surfaced that she was arrested by Afghan authorities in July 2008 and handed over to the US military. Since then, she has been languishing in foreign prison.
She said that her sister could be repatriated if Pakistan enters into a bilateral agreement with the US in accordance with Transfer of Offenders Ordinance 2002. Therefore, she pleaded the court to direct the authorities to make serious efforts for her sister’s repatriation.