Talha Mehood said that Interior Minister and Secretary Interior would be summoned to explain under what circumstances Dr Aafia landed at Baghram Airbase after she went missing along with her three children from Karachi in 2003. He termed her shifting to US as illegal, adding if US wants to win the hearts of Pakistanis it should release Dr Aafia without any further delay.
He urged politicians, civil society and the entire nation to come forward and support him in his efforts for getting Dr Afia released. The committee members believed that Dr Aafia Siddiqui was picked from Karachi and handed over to US Authorities in 2003 but they (US) charged her for terrorism in Afghanistan in 2008.
The committee was told that the lawyers hired by the government of Pakistan were being paid 2 million dollars but they were only assisting the court and not acting as lead lawyers in the case on which the committee showed serious reservation. Dr Fouzia Siddiqui made many shocking and astonishing revelations about her detained sister before the Senate Standing Committee. She said the government handed her sister over to US authorities in 2003, much before she was charged with attacking the US soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008.
"This was openly confessed by the then Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat in some TV programme in 2003", she maintained. "All the charges framed against her sister of opening fire on US soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008 are baseless, as she was already in US custody", she added.
She further said that she could produce before the committee the footage of the spokesman of FIA who, in 2003, made a statement on MSNBC television that Dr Aafia was practically in FBI custody. Dr Fouzia shared the inhuman behaviour of US army with Dr Aafia on July 6 when she was forced to walk naked over the copy of Holy Quran.
She also cleared that Dr Aafia was a Ph.D doctor in education not a biological or nuclear scientist. She further informed the committee that her mother had informed the then IG Sindh Asad Ashraf Malik when Dr Aafia went missing in 2003. However, she was told that FIR of missing persons could not be registered. On this, the chairman of the committee summoned former IG Sindh in next meeting.
When asked about the option to approach International Court of Justice (ICJ), Fouzia said that Pakistani authorities had told her that there are complications. On this, the committee's chairman asked Ministry of Law and Justice to give its opinion on the proposal to take the Dr Aafia's case to ICJ.
They officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it was useless to take the case to ICJ as US and Afghanistan did not recognise the International court. When questioned, Joint Secretary Ministry of Interior told the committee that they had not exact information as to how Aafia reached Afghanistan or where she spent five years after going missing from Karachi in 2003 and resurfacing in Afghanistan in 2008.
He said according to the available information with the ministry, on July 17, 2008 the Afghan authorities handed over Dr Aafia to US Authorities after finding here roaming around Ghazni Base in a suspicious condition. Later she was flown to the US on August 13, 2008.
The committee was informed that legal and medical aid is being provided to Dr Aafia. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had also raised the issue during his meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her recent visit to Pakistan. The committee was told that about 5.5 million Pakistanis were abroad.
As many as 6337 are convicted and languishing in jails or facing trials. As many as 2145 were arrested for drug trafficking abroad, out of them 693 are in UAE, 567 in Saudi Arabai, 231 in Kuwait and 131 in China. Senator Talha Mehmood directed the concerned departments to make efforts to get released the Pakistanis who are in jails in abroad for minor offences.
Senators Haji Adeel, Syeda Sughra Imam, Almas Perveen, Begum Najma Hameed, Dr Abdul Malik and senior officials of Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Fouzia, elder sister of Dr Aafia attended the meeting.