Pakistan seeks US presidential pardon for Dr Aafia Siddiqui

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sought presidential pardon for incarcerated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui from the United States, ARY News reported on Friday.

This was stated by the additional attorney general of Pakistan during a hearing of a case related to the repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui from the US in Islamabad High Court bench of Justice Aijaz Ishaq.

“Pakistan government has penned a letter to the US president to seek pardon for Dr Aafia Siddiqui,” AAGP Munawar Dogal told the IHC bench.

Dogal informed the IHC that the premier has written a letter to the US president for Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s pardon.

Aafia Siddiqui was born in 1972 into an educated family in Karachi. She pursued her studies in the United States, earning a PhD in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2001.

Known for her academic brilliance and religious devotion, her life took a significant shift when she was accused of having ties to ‘extremist organizations’ following the 9/11 attacks.

In 2008, she was arrested in Ghazni, Afghanistan, under controversial circumstances. She was accused of attempting to shoot American soldiers during an interrogation session, an incident that forms the core of the charges against her.

The U.S. authorities claimed that the Pakistani doctor, despite being detained, managed to grab a rifle and opened fire, though she did not hit anyone. In response, the U.S. personnel shot her in the abdomen, severely wounding her.

It is to be noted that Fowzia Siddiqui met her sister in May, earlier in 2023, for the first time after 20 years of imprisonment in the United States.