Family welcomes committee on Aafia repatriation
Karachi: The family of Dr Aafia Siddiqui here Sunday welcomed the announcement of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed regarding formation of a government committee to ensure early release and repatriation of the Pakistani mother from the United States of America.
Aafia Movement Pakistan leader Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, greeting the government move, said that this government has also to take serious steps as in past many such committees were formed but they proved tools to buy more time and to release the public pressure instead of really working for Aafia release. She hoped this time the government would not befool the people in the name of a committee who want to see the daughter of the nation back home.
Fauzia said the family of Dr Aafia expects that Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ahmed would adopt a serious approach on the Aafia issue. She said in a recent meeting last week he had already assured that the release of Dr Aafia is amongst the topmost priorities of his government. She said let us see who are taken on this committee. She urged that those senators, national assembly members and human rights activists should be included in this committee who are firmly committed to the cause of Dr Aafia return.
She reminded that Dr Aafia had been languishing in the US imprisonment for last 10 years and during this decade-long captivity she has braved all sorts of tortures and atrocities with exemplary courage, adding the whole nation is proud of the Aafia bravery. She said Aafia is innocent. She was handed 86-year imprisonment in a fake and fabricated case by a US court in violation of all norms of justice. This is why today even the US civil society and human rights organizations are demanding release of Aafia. This fake case has tarnished the face of the US justice system and is also a cruel joke with humanity.
Dr Fauzia hoped that if the government really took serious efforts then Aafia Siddiqui would spend the last 10 days of Holy Ramzan home and celebrate Eidul Fitr with her children. She said Aafia is no more a Pakistan-centric issue, but already turned into an international movement for the release of trafficked people jailed in fake cases due to political reasons. Dr Fauzia was optimistic that the early release and repatriation of Dr Siddiqui would help in releasing strains in the Pak-US ties and promote people-to-people contacts between the two nations. It would also help in bettering the US image in Muslim world for which the American nation is spending billions of dollars of her taxpayers.
She said that the masses have elected PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif for his pledge to the Aafia cause and his promise that he would ensure the release of the Pakistani mother. She hoped that Mian Nawaz Sharif would not disappoint the nation in this regard.Meanwhile, Aafia Movement Pakistan, in a separate statement, suggested that Dr Fauzia Siddiqui should be included in the government committee for the release and repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
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