ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday the government would not release Dr Shakeel Afridi, the physician who allegedly helped CIA hunt Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, despite the American legislation envisaging halt to $33 million in aid.

“There is no possibility of Dr Shakeel Afridi’s release at the US request,” FO spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at the weekly briefing.

The government is likely to take up the matter at the next week (Jan 27-28) ministerial meeting of the Strategic Dialogue.

The US legislation signed by President Barack Obama on Friday provides for holding back $33m in annual assistance as long as Dr Afridi remains jailed.

The FO had earlier this week protested over the linkage after an uproar in the Senate on the matter.

Dr Afridi’s review petition against his sentencing is in process. Originally accused of helping CIA track Osama by carrying out a phoney polio vaccine campaign to collect DNA samples of the inmates of the house where the Al Qaeda leader lived, Dr Afridi was sentenced by the trial court of Assistant Political Agent Bara to 33 years in jail for links with outlawed militant outfit Lashkar-i-Islam.

About the review process, Ms Aslam said: “If the courts exonerate him that would be a different matter but you know that he has been convicted and the review process is taking place.”

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Spain Gonzalo De Benetino called Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to condole the death of six paramilitary troops, who were killed in Mastung while protecting a Spanish cyclist.

The foreign minister thanked the government for saving the life of the Spaniard who during his round-the-world cycle tour had entered Balochistan from Iran.

Responding to a question, Ms Aslam said Saudi Arabia never informed embassies of ‘convicts’ before carrying out executions.

“That is why we find out only after an execution has taken place when the Saudi authorities send us the information,” the spokesperson said.

Saudi authorities have carried out a number of executions of alleged foreign drug traffickers. The trial of the alleged traffickers, human rights activists say, is seldom fair. The convicts hardly get a chance for appeal or consular assistance.

This year two Pakistanis have been executed on the charge of drug trafficking. Last year one Pakistani was executed in the kingdom.

Nationalities of four others, doubted to be Pakistanis, haven’t been ascertained.

The spokesperson said both India and Pakistan wanted to resolve the controversy that had led to suspension of the cross-Line of Control trade.

Both countries have summoned each other’s diplomats and served them with demarches over detention of trucks on both sides.

The row started after a truck from Azad Kashmir was held in India-held Kashmir for allegedly carrying narcotics.

Ms Aslam said that summoning of the Indian counsellor to the foreign office and that of Pakistani deputy high commissioner to Indian ministry of external affairs was for resolving the deadlock.