Daily Times

Pakistan has raised the issue of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three jailed in the US for almost a decade, with Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells who visited Islamabad this week. “Government of Pakistan has been raising the issue of Dr Aafia Siddiqui with US authorities regularly. Pakistan’s CG (consul general) in Houston pays consular visits to Dr Siddiqui periodically to inquire about her wellbeing and conveys her messages to Dr Aafia’s family if any,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “The issue of respecting the human and legal rights of Dr Afia Siddiqui was also raised in a meeting at MoFA with Ambassador Alice Wells on November 6,” it said. “The US side has promised to look into our request,” it added. The statement read that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would soon meet the sister of Dr Aafia Siddiqui in Islamabad. Dr Siddiqui has been in prison since 2010 on charges of attempted murder and assault on US military personnel during an interview with US authorities in Ghazni, charges which Siddiqui denies. She was sentenced to 86 years in prison at the Federal Medical Centre, Carswell, Fort Worth in Texas. The development comes after the neuroscientist reportedly penned a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, requesting him to make efforts for her release.

Published in Daily Times, November  8^th 2018.