No pressure from US to hand over Dr Shakeel Afridi, says state minister

Published December 19, 2018
Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi speaks in the Senate on Wednesday. — DawnNewsTV
Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi speaks in the Senate on Wednesday. — DawnNewsTV

The United States has made no request to Pakistan to hand over Dr Shakeel Afridi, who was imprisoned for his alleged links to a banned militant group, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi informed the Senate on Wednesday.

The minister was responding to a question by Senator Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who said reports were emerging that the US had asked Pakistan to extradite Dr Afridi, the physician who allegedly helped the Central Intelligence Agency in tracking Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in an Abbottabad compound through a vaccination campaign.

"Is there any pressure from America on the government regarding the matter of Shakeel Afridi?" the senator asked.

"There is no question of it. There is neither any pressure on us nor will we take the same," Shehryar replied, adding that he was not aware of any extradition request made by Washington regarding Dr Afridi.

"There will be no compromise on national security," he said, stressing that the government's performance was out there for everyone to see.

The minister said if such a request is received from the US, it will be put in front of the parliament, but added that the matter would fall under provincial jurisdiction after the 18th Amendment.

At this, Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed opined that it was not appropriate to term Dr Afridi's matter "a provincial issue".

"The same will be said about Kulbhushan [Jadhav] tomorrow," he said, in a reference to the Indian spy who was sentenced to death in 2017 by a Pakistani military tribunal for his involvement in espionage.

"There is a difference between Shakeel Afridi and Kulbhushan," was the state interior minister's counterargument.

Dr Afridi had been imprisoned at Peshawar Jail before he was shifted in April 2018 to Adiala Jail. In August, he was shifted to Sahiwal jail for security reasons.

Today's session also saw Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry returning to the house after a ban placed on him by the Senate chairman for his failure to apologise over remarks he had uttered against opposition members ended.

PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan, who Chaudhry had accused of nepotism in remarks that had caused the initial ruckus in the parliament, got up from his seat to shake hands with the information minister as he arrived for the session.

Senators barred from appearing before NAB without permission

Meanwhile, National Party (NP) Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo submitted a privilege motion on reports of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) allegedly preparing to act against him.

"I have been accused of purchasing property worth billions," the senator said, claiming that his wife, daughter and nephews had been implicated as well.

"I challenge NAB to form a JIT [Joint Investigation Team] against me," he said, adding that if even that is not enough, he was ready to appear before a committee formed by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Bizenjo claimed that he "unfortunately" had a hand in the appointment of the current NAB chairman. "I supported him because he belonged to Balochistan," the NP president added.

His remarks came as Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla revealed that he had written letters to the NAB chairman and all members of the upper house, barring them from appearing before the accountability watchdog without approval from the Senate chairman's office.

"No Senator should appear before NAB without taking permission from the [Senate] chairman office," Mandviwalla said while speaking in the house.

He said this protocol should be followed if a member receives any notice from the bureau. "If NAB forces you to come, make it clear that the bureau should communicate with the [Senate] chairman office," he added.

But the opposition parties remained unconvinced, with Opposition Leader Raja Zafarul Haq demanding that the NAB chairman be summoned to the upper house to explain the bureau's recent steps against parliamentarians.

"This process will not support with your letter," Haq told Mandviwalla, adding that the NAB chief should be called for discussing the rules with him. He also demanded that a special committee be formed over the issue.

But the deputy Senate chairman stressed that the opposition parties should wait for the NAB chairman to respond to his letter.

Senator Mushahidullah claimed that besides NAB, some ministers were also conducting the "media trial" of opposition lawmakers.

"Opposition members are arrested but only inquiries are carried out against government members," the PML-N senator alleged, adding that the same treatment should also be meted out to Prime Minister Imran Khan, his sister Aleema Khan, and others.

PPP senator raises questions over Indian spy's return

Speaking during the session, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman raised the demand for Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to be summoned to the house to brief it on the matter of Indian spies Kulbhushan Jadhav, who remains in Pakistani custody, and Hamid Nehal Ansari, who was released and repatriated to India on Tuesday.

She said the government had not answered opposition's questions regarding progress in Jadhav's case and now a second spy had been "happily" sent back to his home country.

"If he was a spy, how was he allowed to return?" Rehman questioned. "What did you accept in exchange for the spy's return?"

"Sit-ins would have taken place here had our government returned a spy," he claimed.

The PPP senator also pointed to a dam which she said was being funded by India in Afghanistan and which will hinder the supply of water to Pakistan.

"The dam could become a cause for seriously impaired relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan," she feared, seeking a government response on the issue.

Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani, too, criticised the foreign minister for not taking the parliament on board on matters of national importance.

"It seems like the parliament has become non-functional," he said, adding that the opposition had received news of Pakistan aiding talks between the United States and Afghan Taliban through Prime Minister Khan's statement outside the parliament.

"The foreign minister did not give a single policy statement in this regard before the parliament," Rabbani said.

He said the prime and foreign ministers had twice visited Saudi Arabia but details of the agreements entered into with the Kingdom were not presented in the parliament.

"Has a defence agreement been signed [between the two countries]?" he questioned. "On what terms has the economic package been decided with Saudi Arabia?"

He also regretted that the government had not taken the parliament into confidence over the premier's visits to China and the United Arab Emirates either.

The Senate deputy chairman summoned Foreign Minister Qureshi at the next sitting of the upper house.

Lawmakers seek probe into drugs use among students

The opposition also demanded a government probe into minister Afridi's reported statement that as many as 75 per cent female students and 45pc male students of schools in the capital use ice drug.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said Prime Minister Khan had taken notice of the matter and the government was "keeping an eye" on it.

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