Dr Lubna Zaheer
It has been more or less 20 years since Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui was imprisoned in an American prison. During this time, voices in her favor continued to rise in Pakistan. Civil society and media kept demanding her release. Dr Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui continued to lead a campaign for her release. Political parties also claimed that after coming to power, they will talk to the US government to bring Dr Aafia back to Pakistan. Three governments of PML-N, PPP and PTI were formed in the meantime, but Aafia Siddiqui couldn’t return to Pakistan.
Ten days ago, Dr Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui held two meetings with her sister imprisoned in the United State. The first meeting was held in solitary confinement. However, in the second meeting, Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed and Dr Aafia’s lawyer were also accompanied by Dr Fauzia. When Dr Fauzia reached the meeting room to meet her sister in jail, she was saddened to see that there was a thick glass wall between them.
Imagine the helplessness of these sisters who even couldn’t touch and hug each other. What Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan disclosed that Dr Aafia, who was wearing prisoners’ uniform, had her two front teeth broken as a result of an attack by an inmate. There is also a deep scar around her eyes. Due to a head injury, her hearing has also been affected. Dr Aafia told her sister that she missed her mother and children all the time. Look at the strictness of the prison authorities and American laws that Dr Fauzia was not even allowed to show Dr Aafia the pictures of her children. According to Senator Mushtaq, these meetings were being fully recorded.
Dr Aafia got education from the same United States in whom prison she is imprisoned. She was handed over to the US in 2003 during the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf writes in his book that Pakistan received US dollars after handing over citizens to America. Dr Aafia was accused of firing on American soldiers and trying to kill them. She was tried in the US court and sentenced to 86 years in prison. The judge awarded the sentence for committing various crimes that she attacked American citizens. The years of punishment were extended many times because these citizens were soldiers and also government officials. Life imprisonment was given because the attacker used a weapon. Cut the long story short Dr Aafia has been rotting in the US prison for the past twenty years as she just pulled a gun on American soldiers. Dr Aafia’s life has become so miserable that no one will listen if prisoners in the jail break her teeth, punch and beat her. Over the years, Dr Aafia’s mother died and her children went missing. Her sister ran from pillar to post for justice but to no avail. Now the two sisters met through a glass wall.
This is the US that calls itself the greatest champion of human rights. Feminism is the most popular in America. Humans are humans, dogs and cats also have rights there. But Dr Aafia doesn’t have the right to touch or hug her sister after years of visiting. She doesn’t even have the right to see her children’s pictures. If there is a minor incident with a woman in Pakistan, America starts teaching us women’s rights and freedom. However, America turns a blind eye to the issue of rape, kidnapping and murder in Kashmir. The entire world knows that America has been committing the worst violations of human rights in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison. But the US never had the opportunity to sweep before its own door. No other country or international organization could dare to draw America’s attention to human rights. Always depended on the US and the IMF, Pakistan too is unable to bring America under any pressure because.
The US judge sentenced Dr Aafia to 20 years in prison for attacking American citizens. The sentence was extended by 20 years as the US citizens were government officials, while an additional 20 years were added to the years of the sentence because the American citizens were also soldiers. The life sentence was given because Dr Aafia possessed a weapon. But when it comes to Pakistan, these laws and regulations are buried in a grave. On May 9, the PTI miscreants attacked military installations, burned the houses and properties of soldiers, and spread fear and panic. But when the PTI (through its lobbying firms) brought to the attention of American members of Congress that legal action was being taken against their activists, these members wrote to Congress Secretary Anthony Blanken that the human rights situation in Pakistan was alarming. Pay attention to this. Then we start hearing that human and political rights should be respected. Americans make hue and cry about imprisoned women in Pakistan and demand their release on the basis of their gender. But when Dr Aafia sought help from Pakistanis for rescue, no one came forward to help her.
On the other hand, when it was known that the Pakistani designer Khadija Shah, who was involved in the May 9 mayhem, was an American citizen, the US embassy immediately mobilized to free her. Isn’t is a hypocrisy? Just imagine how the land of law is implemented in the United States that a man who had planned to attack the Capitol Hill in 2021 was sentenced to 18 years in prison. The person who took a picture with his feet on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s chair was sentenced to four and a half years. This means that if someone points a gun at your [US] soldier, he/she will be imprisoned for 86 years, but our [Pakistan] military installations, outposts and houses are of no importance. “Our parliament, our policemen, and our laws are of no importance.”
Why America is to be blamed? The real problem lies with the PTI itself, which is placing this issue before the Americans in return for paying millions of dollars. I wish the PTI would have lobbied in the US in the same way for human rights violations in Kashmir, would spend millions of dollars, Narendra Modi would receive letters from the US senators. If Modi had learned about human rights, the hearts of Pakistanis would have been happy.
— The author is an academician and political analyst
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Lahore Mirror
