Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: American agencies and the justice system are unkind to non-Americans who have been serving their nation. A Pakistani-American doctor who faced such discrimination appealed to the government of Pakistan to help him on the diplomatic front. It was a tragedy that whenever American security agencies felt suspicious about non-Americans, they began to harass them, ignoring their contributing at highest levels to serve the American nation.

Daily Times found Pakistani doctor Ather Niaz Rana’s story, who was the healer of Americans but a minor mistake committed by his teenage daughter led to disaster for his family and his career. The doctor who has served thousands of Americans was deported to Pakistan. His daughter created a poster that criticised former American president George W Bush, documenting his war crimes in the Iraq war, highlighting how the war was fought on the falsehood that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

After that, the secret service and a FBI agent came to Dr. Athar Rana’s house and interviewed his daughter about a caricature of Bush. Dr Rana, who has been living in the USA for 25 years, was considered a ‘hardcore terrorist’, which was highly inappropriate.

19 FBI agents with guns and badges raided the office under the pretext of a possible Medicaid fraud and went on a spree of confiscation of records. The head of the FBI team agent Mr. Hoover and agent Sutherland spent seven hours in Dr. Rana’s personal office and confiscated his personal belongings including his passport, photo albums and airline tickets. They seemed to be very interested in his Islamic books and flight manuals. His multiple entries to Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the centre of their attention.

The following day, they called him to the FBI office in Texas where they questioned him about Jihad, bombs, his support for colleges and schools and mosques he contributed to build in more than one location, his association with religious organisations and his hunting weapons. They also questioned about his childhood in Quetta, and his relationship with some people in Pakistan.

The agent accused him baselessly of writing a threatening letter to George Bush.

Dr Rana was outraged and did not hesitate to take the matter to court. Rana researched and found the best criminal defense attorney in Texas and reached Mike Ramsey from Houston who reassured him that the accusation was frivolous. Then one day, he was arrested him and released on hefty bail. According to those attending the trial, it was a mockery of Rana in a kangaroo court.

They weren’t allowed to bring key witnesses or allowed to present facts, while all their motions were denied and his attorneys, who had very little interaction with him, failed and lost the case. They filed an appeal, and in twenty minutes the lower court’s decision was upheld. So in this way a doctor who had helped thousands of Americans became the victim of an injustice. Dr Ather Niaz Rana sought diplomatic support from the Pakistani government to resolve the issue.