Sindh High Court seeks comments from federal govt

Author: Yousaf Katpar

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court directed the federal law officer on Tuesday to place on record the comments of the federal authorities on a petition seeking repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.

Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who was heading a division bench, took up the petition filed by Dr Fouzia Siddiqui through which she sought directives for the federal authorities for repatriation of her sister.

At the outset, the federal law officer informed the judges that he had already filed the comments of the federal authorities. After flicking through the case file, the judges said the comments were not available in there.

The court, therefore, directed the counsel to once again file comments on the petition and supply the same to the petitioner’s counsel. The hearing was put off till November 15.

In the plea, the woman petitioner 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 was in their custody.

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. Moreover, she added there was also a possibility of her repatriation by the way of Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad.

The woman petitioner told the judges that the court had earlier directed the authorities concerned to explore the possibility of a bilateral agreement with the US and endeavor to materialize the same within reasonable time. But despite lapse of significant time, no effort was made to repatriate her, which was clear violation of the court orders. She, therefore, pleaded the court to direct the authorities to make serious efforts for her sister’s repatriation.

The court had directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior earlier to make all-out efforts to strike a bilateral agreement with the US to repatriate Dr Aafia Siddiqui.