The Nation
February 23, 2010

ISLAMABAD – The Upper House of the Parliament on Monday through a unanimously passed resolution asked the Government to make all legal and diplomatic efforts for the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from US detention.

“The House expresses its grave concern and sorrow over the continuous detention of Dr Aafia and her children and demands that Government should adopt all legal and diplomatic measures to seek her return to Pakistan,” read the resolution moved by Senator Talha Mehmood and read out by Leader of the House in Senate Nayyar Hussain Bukhari.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan said that the US jury had ignored three universally recognised principles of justice while giving its verdict against Dr Aafia. He said the case involved conflict of law, as the accused was a Pakistani citizen arrested from Afghanistan and being tried in the United States. He said in such cases benefit of the conflict of law was given to the accused but the US jury ignored this principle of justice.

Moreover, he added, the accused is given the benefit of doubt if a single link is missing in circumstantial evidences. In Dr Aafia’s case, the very origin of the crime and place of her arrest was not clear as well as the statements of prosecution witnesses were contradictory but she was given no benefit of doubt, Dr Awan continued.

Furthermore, the forensic report, too, did not support the prosecution’s stance but the US jury ignored all these principles of justice, the Minister regretted. He called upon the jury to review its verdict on the touchstone of universally recognised principles of justice.
Before passage of the resolution, mover of the resolution Senator Talha Mehmood also highlighted the various aspects of the case in his speech. He said all political forces and the nation were united on the issue. He questioned under which principle of justice children of Dr Aafia were being kept detained and that how she could be tried in the US for a crime she allegedly committed in Afghanistan.
He said the nation had rendered innumerable sacrifices in the war on terror but received drone attacks, cases like Dr Aafia and other such things in return. Senator Talha further said that case involved honour and dignity of the nation and Government should, therefore, raise it on international forums….