US promises to look into request for Aafia's release

ISLAMABAD: The United States has promised to look into request of the incumbent government about Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist jailed in the US.

“The Government of Pakistan has been raising the issue of Dr Aafia Siddiqui with US authorities regularly,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.

The ministry said Pakistan’s consular general in Houston paid the consular visits to Dr Siddiqui, periodically, to inquire about her wellbeing and conveyed her messages to Dr Aafia’s family, if any.

The US side had promised to look into the government’s request, while the issue of respecting the human and legal rights of Dr Aafia Siqqiqui was raised in the meeting at the MoFA with Ambassador Alice Wells on Tuesday.

Read More: ‘I want to get out of US prison’ – Dr Aafia writes to Imran Khan

The Mofa said the foreign minister would soon meet with the sister of Dr Afia Siddique in Islamabad.

About a week ago, Aafia’s sister, Dr Fauzia Siddiqui called on Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari in Islamabad.

Both of them discussed the ways how to move ahead in bringing Dr Aafia Siddiqui back to Pakistan.

The minister assured Dr Fauzia that the government was trying its best to bring Dr Aafia Siddiqui back to Pakistan.

The imprisoned Pakistani scientist has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, seeking his assistance in ensuring her release from the US prison.

Pakistan’s consul general in Houston met Aafia at the prison where she handed him over the letter addressed to Khan.

“I want to get out of the prison, as my imprisonment in the US jail is illegal,” she wrote in the letter.