PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench yet again sought comments from the interior secretary on Wednesday on a petition seeking its orders for the government against sending former agency surgeon of Khyber Agency Dr Shakil Afridi abroad in case of any secret deal with the US government.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard preliminary arguments of the petitioner, Mohammad Khursheed Khan, who contended that any move by the government to shift Dr Shakil abroad would be unconstitutional and illegal.

The petitioner, who is a former deputy attorney general, pointed out that the court had earlier sought comments in May, but the respondent (interior secretary) had so far not filed them.

Petitioner seeks order for govt against sending former agency surgeon abroad under deal

The bench adjourned the hearing asking the interior secretary to file comments in the case. Schedule of the next hearing will be announced later.

Dr Shakil, a former agency surgeon of Khyber Agency, who was taken into custody in May 2011 on suspicion of helping the American CIA trace Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, was shifted few months ago to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail from Peshawar Central Prison, where he had been imprisoned since his conviction by an assistant political agent on the charge of having links with a banned militant outfit in 2012.

However, he was later shifted to Sahiwal Prison last month due to security reasons.

His shifting to Adiala Jail had also given birth to speculations including the one about his possible shifting abroad.

However, the Foreign Office had dispelled the impression in May that Dr Shakil would be shifted abroad as a result of any secret deal.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the government not to send Dr Shakil abroad until the disposal of the petition.

He prayed the court to declare that if Dr Shakil has to be sent abroad, the high court’s permission should be taken before it.

The petitioner had filed the petition last year after rumours surfaced that Dr Shakil might be sent abroad and handed over to the US government.

He claimed that he came to know that the adviser to the then prime minister on foreign affairs had said that if the US formally put up a request, then Pakistan could consider the handing over of Dr Shakil to the US.

The petitioner alleged that Dr Shakil had carried out a fake vaccination drive and had provided all the information to the Americans which had resulted into attack on Pakistan and killing of Osama bin Laden by them.

He said Dr Shakil was a convict who had brought bad name to the country and that the government had no legal authority to send a convict abroad.

The petitioner has also referred to the cases of Indian spy Kulbushan Yadev and American contractor Raymond Davis and said in those cases, the governments had succumbed to international pressure.

He said the government had failed to produce the evidence against Kulbushan before the UN to substantiate their case against India.

A petition of Dr Shakil against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum of the FCR Commissioner has been pending with the Fata Tribunal over three years without noteworthy progress.

The FCR Commissioner, which is the appellate forum under the FCR, had on Mar 15, 2014, had upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil for being linked to a banned militant organisation of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency but reduced his original prison term slapped by the assistant political agent’s court from 33 years to 23 years and that of the Rs320,000 fine to Rs220,000.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2018