A mockery of justice

Aitzaz Ahsan, President SCBA, during his recent visit to New York and President Zardari, soon after in Islamabad, have made statements to the effect that Dr Aafia's case is more a test of the "American Justice" rather than a test of justice to Dr Aafia alone.

The questions arise as to: Whether this is the first test of US justice or the US justice has already been tried several times with extremely negative results? Whether it is not already established, despite loose claims of secularity by the concerned quarters, that the US justice and as a matter of fact the justice of most of the western or Christian - dominated countries has dual faces: one for the Christians and Jews and the other for the Muslims?

The standards of justice, honesty and fair play of the US and its associate western countries have been well exposed by:

"    Their invasion of Iraq on the pretext of presence of weapons of mass destruction and by their continuing the occupation of that country and the massacre of its inhabitants even after the establishment of the fact that the plea was false and 'cooked'.

"    Their brutal invasion of Afghanistan after arbitrary fixation of responsibility of the 9/11 incident on a primitive people who had not used any weapon beyond a rifle and a machine gun, who lived in mud houses and caves, who could not use a computer and who had not seen any country of the world beyond Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Now coming to the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqi, the following injustices have already been committed by US government in her case:

"    On March 30, 2003 her taxi (on way to Karachi airport) was intercepted on main University road and she was kidnapped along with her 3 children and transported by air to Afghanistan the same day. This was totally an unlawful act, whether accomplished alone by the US agencies or with the help of the sold out Government of Pakistan.

"    Aafia's children then aged 6 months to 6 years were separated from her the same day and they were also flown to Kabul. Two younger ones were given to some orphanage without any record while the elder boy (Muhammad Ahmad) was kept in juvenile jails and, at times, in isolation cells in the custody of US or Italian soldiers. Every time he was given a new name and a new story of his past to be told. He was scolded at and at times physically punished for making any mistakes in replaying the given version.

"    Dr Aafia was kept in complete isolation from April 2003 till early 2007at the notorious Bagram jail of the Americans north of Kabul. During this period she was subjected to the worst-possible physical and mental torture. Her late night screams have been heard and reported in the media by a number of prisoners who were kept there during that period (Moazzam Beg etc). During this very period her face was deformed and altered through plastic surgery for unknown reasons. She was forced to have a new identity and a new name-again for unknown reasons. That her face has been changed can be ascertained by comparing Dr Aafia's current picture with her old pictures.

"    Dr Aafia is understood to have been shifted from Bagram jail to the private jail of the American Embassy in Islamabad in mid 2007 and kept in one of the prisons there. Here also she was kept in complete isolation but was not tortured physically. She received a better treatment here with better food. From American embassy she is understood to have been shifted to the control of ISI, Islamabad and remained in their custody for sometime.