The Islamabad High Court (IHC) earlier today sought comments from the government over a petition asking for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to raise the issue of releasing Dr Aafia Siddiqui during his upcoming visit to the United States.
Aafia, a Pakistani neuroscientist, is serving an 86-year prison sentence in US for attacking American soldiers.
Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi of the IHC heard the petition filed by Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui.
The petitioner’s counsel took the stance that at the time when Nawaz was not the prime minister, he had written a letter to the then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, asking him to take steps for the release of Aafia.
The petitioner requested that the court direct the premier to raise issue of Aafia’s release with President Obama during his visit to Washington on Oct 22.
President Obama’s permission should be sought for the grant of access to Aafia’s councillor, the petitioner said.
He added that permission for Aafia’s family to meet the imprisoned doctor should also be sought.
After hearing the arguments, the court issued notices to the Prime Minister House and the foreign and interior ministries, seeking comments on the petition. The hearing was subsequently adjourned.
After a childhood split between Pakistan and Zambia, Aafia Siddiqui travelled as a teenager to Texas, where her brother lived, before studying at Boston’s prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and doing a PhD in neuroscience at Brandeis University.
Siddiqui’s story, one of the most intriguing of the “war on terror” era, began in March 2003 when Al Qaeda number three and alleged main 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested in Karachi.
Soon after his arrest, Siddiqui — suspected of Al Qaeda links by the US — disappeared along with her three children in Karachi.
Five years later she turned up in Afghanistan, where she was arrested by local forces in the restive southeastern province of Ghazni.
According to US court papers, she was carrying two kilos of sodium cyanide hidden in moisturiser bottles, along with plans for chemical weapons and New York’s Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Building.
The Afghans handed her to US forces who began questioning her. During her interrogation she grabbed a rifle and opened fire, according to witnesses, at US agents while screaming “Death to America” and “I want to kill Americans”.
The soldiers escaped unhurt, but she was injured.
From Afghanistan, Siddiqui was put on trial in the US and sentenced in 2010 to 86 years for attempted murder — and not for any Al Qaeda links.
