Our courts are the ray of hope in Dr. Aafia Siddiqui case: Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui

KARACHI, March 02 (SABAH): Aafia Movement Pakistan leader and noted neurophysician of the country Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui has said that our courts are the ray of hope for us, saying it is the duty of the courts to uphold the basic human and constitutional rights of all Pakistani citizens.

She was addressing a crowded press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) flanked by Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s American lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.

She said the world talks warmly about the women’s rights but it suddenly becomes silent when the name of Dr Aafia Siddiqui is uttered. She asked why Dr Aafia’s basic rights as a human being, as a woman and as a mother are being overlooked and that too by the West, the self-proclaimed rights champion.

Dr Fowzia Siddiqui said that nations that keep a mum on the safety and security of their mothers and daughters don’t live with a pride in this world. She said our successive governments and politicians have disappointed the nation on the issue of Dr Aafia. She said she has no hope that our spineless politicians would do anything for Aafia. However, she was confident about the role of courts, saying the unwavering support of the nation, as well as, the civil society activists throughout whole world in a great source of her aspiration. She heaped praise on Aafia’s American lawyer Clive Stafford Smith who is working on this case in the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan. She said Attorney Clive Stafford Smith and his team are doing their best in both Afghanistan and Pakistan on this crucial case but sadly not getting required assistance from our government. She said cooperation from government sides in imperative but sadly the targeted results are yet to a achieved.

Clive Smith, on the occasion, threw light on the case of Aafia Siddiqui.

He said the focus of this press meeting is two-fold: One, the ongoing investigation in Afghanistan and two, the ongoing effort to get Pakistan to do more to solve the problem. He said over the past 10 days, he along with Moazzam Baig, have been working day and night with the very willing assistance of many people in Afghanistan to find further evidence of Dr Aafia’s torture in US custody, and her innocence of the charges.

Clive Smith said that while there is much more to do, and we will return in May, we can reveal now that it is proven by numerous witnesses that Dr Aafia was held in Bagram for a significant part of the five years she was missing (2003-08), before she was moved to another, even worse prison. People who say she was at liberty at that time are simply not telling the truth.

He said on July 17, 2008, she was sent to Ghazni with the promise that she would get her daughter Maryam back. We can now prove that this was a sham, and a call had been made to the police that she was a suicide bomber. The only thing that saved her life was a brave Ghazni tailor who worked across from the Khalid Bin Walid Mosque and had been able to speak Urdu with her. He said when 40 Afghan National Police with AK47s, this tailor saved her life by standing between her and them and telling them that the caller was lying. We have located several witnesses to corroborate the Tailor’s evidence.

We have developed proof that the evidence presented at Dr Aafia’s American trial was false from start to finish, he said.

Dr Fowzia said while the MOFA are being personally pleasant in our dealings with them, they are simply not getting the job done. Most urgent is to move her from FMC Carswell where she has endured repeated sexual assaults. But equally urgent is to provide Clive Stafford Smith – who is doing the case all alone in the US – with Pakistani-American counsel who can help ensure her legal rights, including to a doctor and to an Imam (the Bureau of Prisons apparently says they can provide neither).

Clive Smith said Pakistan also needs to provide a sensible exchange that can be made with the US. We have suggested the name of Dr Shakeel Afridi, and if the government is unwilling (for reasons that have not been made known) to agree to this, then they need to suggest something else.

Dr Fowzia said any government official who has a problem with the proposals for returning Dr Aafia to her home is under a moral duty to contact Clive Stafford Smith and explain why, and help work out some alternative. The work is ongoing and it will take at least one more investigation trip to Afghanistan before Clive Stafford Smith can file the necessary challenges in the New York court. However, it remains the goal to ensure her return before the end of 2024.

However, Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor said that the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui shows the double standards of the West over human rights. He said the Gaza genocide is also another example of the dishonesty and lies of the West over human rights. He said the world is dissatisfied with the West and the global institutions saving its vested interests. He said the veto power of a few ‘politically rouge states’ in UN Security Council in the blemish on the face of the new world. He said it is high time to dismantle the United Nations and make a new world alliance on the basis of democracy. He demanded that Dr Aafia Siddiqui should be released from the US prison without further loss of time, which would serve the ends of peace and justice.