Daily Times

Dr Afridi was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment and fined Rs 320,000 by a tribal area ‘court’ in Khyber Agency a fortnight back. The charge against the doctor was his involvement in helping the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. The initial conviction had closed all doors to an appeal for Dr Afridi. The argument ran that aiding foreign spy agencies amounts to treason. Uproar erupted in the US, among human rights organisations, and in the lawyers’ community. No sooner than the US began pointing to the double standards by Pakistan, the latter developed a new charge sheet against the doctor. This time it is his alleged relationship with the banned terrorist organization Lashkar-i-Islami headed by Mangal Bagh. He is accused of masterminding terrorist attacks on Pakistani forces in the tribal areas. The charge sheet grows grimmer as one reads on. The doctor is said to be a womaniser, hard drinker, and a sexual harasser. All of a sudden, some nurses have complained about his overtures towards them. Senior doctors have accused him of being dishonest and stealing hospital goods for his private clinic. In a matter of a few weeks, Dr Shakeel has ‘grown’ as many character flaws and sullied personality traits as could be thought of. The question is, why this sudden change of tack?

In a press conference, Dr Afridi’s brother Dr Jameel Afridi has accused the government of making his brother a scapegoat. From the US perspective, Afridi has played a positive role in helping the CIA reach Osama hiding in a garrison city of Pakistan. Now that the US is applying the expected stoppage of aid in the wake of Pakistan’s refusal to come out clean on the matter of combating terrorism, Afridi’s case has been muddied further. Twisting facts to suit a preconceived plan would endanger Pakistan in multiple ways. Given that Pakistan is supposed to be allied with the US in the war on terror, the fuming of Pakistan against Dr Afridi and his character seems a post facto invention. If the US unilaterally mounted the bin Laden raid, it was because it had lost trust in Pakistan. Now is the time to make at least a clean breast of the facts of the case and let Afridi be heard on his day in court under the normal judicial process in the interests of fair play. *