July 16, 2010

SAMAA TV

ISLAMABAD: President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Qazi Anwar, has said that he is receiving threats from the government.
“A message has been delivered to my nephew in the United States that I am on the hit list of the government,” he told newsmen at a press conference along with Dr. Fauzia Siddiqi Friday.
He said he would definitely attend the lawyer’s convention in Gujrat on Saturday if he survived.

The SCBA President said the he would announce a schedule to hold protests against Dr Aafia’s detention in US. The lawyers, he said, would start a nation-wide protest movement if the government did not take concrete measures to secure Aafia’s release.

July 19, 2010

Public protests, street plays and civil society plea to release Dr Aafia

July 09, 2010
The NATION

ISLAMABAD – Terming the shifting of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from Afghanistan to the USA negation of the international laws, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that Islamabad would use political ways to bring Aafia back to the country.

Talking to media representatives here on Thursday after attending meeting held in connection with the Pak-USA Strategic Dialogue, Malik said that during the meeting Pakistan’s delegation informed the US delegation that Dr Aafia’s shifting from Afghanistan to America was a violation of the international laws.

He said that Pakistan had decided to fight politically for Aafia’s repatriation.
“The matter of Dr Aafia was discussed and we have decided to use every possible channel to bring her back”, he added. He said that Pakistan wanted close relations with the USA in war against terrorism for the sake of regional security and peace.

Christian supporters of a Pakistani socio-political group 'Pasban', hold a rally demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, Sunday, May 30, 2010, in Karachi, Pakistan.

July 16, 2010

JANG - Irfan Siddiqui Column

LHC makes historic ruling for defense of Dr Aafia
June 5, 2010

THE Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday ordered the federal government to defend Dr Aafia Siddiqui in the American court by using all diplomatic means.

Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry observed that since Dr Aafia was a Pakistani citizen, therefore, it was a duty of the government to defend her. The judge also ordered Director General f Foreign Office Shohail Khan to write a letter to the American court, holding trial of Dr Aafia, to bring all the material regarding her innocence into its knowledge.

In his three-page order, the judge asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send the documents regarding Dr Aafia’s innocence to her lawyers for presenting before the American court.

Justice Chaudhry issued the orders while disposing of two petitions seeking instructions for the Government of Pakistan to transmit all the documentary evidence about Dr Aafia’s innocence to the US court so that she might get justice. The judge, on June 4, after listening arguments, had reserved the judgment which he issued on Saturday.

The judge further observed, “I feel no hesitation in holding that if the documents/material in possession of the Government of Pakistan and the family of Dr Aafia in regard to her innocence are sent to the lawyers defending her in American courts if they so wish or think appropriate, however, in accordance with the law of that country.”

The judge issued the orders in petitions filed by Barrister Iqbal Jafree, pleading that Dr Aafia went missing while she was on her way to Karachi from Islamabad along with her three children in 2003 and she was taken to Ghazni, Afghanistan, by American forces. He said the American government had illegally implicated her in cases by showing her arrest from Ghazni. He said a case regarding her abduction and her children was registered in Karachi. He said her two children were recovered from Afghanistan afterwards.