Lawyers demand Aafia repatriation

They accused the former president Pervez Musharraf of receiving heavy sum of dollars in return for giving Dr Aafia in custody of America. The speakers regretted that despite an elected and democratic government was in place, the same old policies of Musharraf era were being pursued in which the victims were still victims and the country’s interest were kept lower to that of American. They stressed on the government to utilise diplomatic and other channels to get Dr Aafia back.

Waseem Butt said the sitting government came to power with the public mandate and the people expected it to take bold decisions to protect the citizens. It is an elected government which needed to demonstrate different from what the last government had been doing to protect interests of America, he said adding, Pakistan would come under great harm if the interest of protecting life of the citizens as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, was not served. Butt said Dr Aafia had pleaded for not being guilty and the government of Pakistan must come to her legal and diplomatic help to obtain her return from America and then deciding before any further action, should study what law of land says on the charges America has levelled against her.