PESHAWAR: A tribal area authority on Saturday upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil Afridi, the doctor accused of having colluded with the American CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, but reduced the sentence awarded to him by an assistant political agent (APA) from 33 years to 23 years imprisonment.

The APA had found Dr Afridi guilty of involvement in anti-state activities by supporting the Lashkar-i-Islam, an outlawed outfit based in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, in 2012.

The 10-year reduction in the sentence was decreed by Munir Azam, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) Commissioner, on grounds that the trial court was not empowered to convict the appellant under section 123-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (condemnation of creation of the state and advocating abolition of its sovereignty) as it was not included in the FCR’s Second Schedule.

Under that section, the APA had sentenced Dr Afridi to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000.

The commissioner had reserved the verdict on Feb 15 after completion of arguments by both sides.

The case has taken several twists and turns. Dr Afridi, a former agency surgeon, was picked up in May 2011 on suspicion of helping the American CIA trace Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by carrying out an allegedly fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad. But he was not convicted on that charge. The APA/additional district magistrate convicted him on May 23, 2012, on charges of getting involved in anti-state activities by supporting the Bara-based Lashkar-i-Islam.

He was sentenced on different counts to a total of 33 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs320,000.

Dr Afridi was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each under sections 121-A (conspiracy to wage war against country or depriving Pakistan of its sovereignty), section 123 (concealing existence of a plan to wage war against Pakistan), and 123-A (condemnation of the creation of the state and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of PPC.

He was sentenced to an additional three years under section 124 (assaulting the President, Governor, etc, with intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of PPC.

The assistant political agent had said the prison terms would run consecutively, meaning that Dr Afridi had to spend 33 years in prison. He had also ordered that benefit of section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure should be extended to Dr Afridi and his prison term be counted from the day when he was taken into custody in May 2011.

The then commissioner of FCR, Sahibzada Anees, who is the appellate forum under the regulation, partially allowed an appeal of Dr Afridi on Aug 29 last year and set aside his conviction by the APA, remanding the case back to the Khyber Agency’s political agent.

However, the commissioner’s order did not specify whether the political agent would conduct a fresh trial or only hear fresh arguments.

A petition was filed against the order with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Tribunal, the third and final judicial forum under the FCR, on behalf of Dr Afridi by his brother Jamil Afridi. He sought clarity in the order of the commissioner.

On Dec 18 the three-member tribunal referred the case back to the commissioner with a directive to pronounce a clear order.

Advocates Samiullah Afridi and Qamar Nadeem Afridi appeared for Shakil Afridi.

Samiullah Afridi told Dawn that he would challenge Saturday’s verdict before the Fata Tribunal, contending that the commissioner had not followed the directives of the tribunal.

“We did not challenge the entire order of the commissioner. Instead, we only sought clarity whether the PA should conduct re-trial or only hold arguments.

“But instead of clarifying that point, the commissioner has now restored with slight modification the conviction of Dr Afridi, which was set aside by the previous commissioner,” the lawyer observed.