LAHORE, Oct 18: Pakistani national Dr Aaafia Siddiqui, detained in US, is still being subjected to inhuman treatment, which includes strip-searches whenever she leaves her cell, and is in need of an experienced criminal lawyer to help fight the charges against her.

This was stated by Senator S M Zafar of PML-Q, chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights, who visited Dr Aafia at a psychiatric treatment facility in Dallas, Texas, on October 8 as part of a group of senators, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Senate Standing Committee on Interior head Muhammad Talha Mehmood and Senator Sadia Abbasi.

Senator Zafar said Dr Aafia was being held in strict solitary confinement at the detention centre which housed around 1,500 patients. Senator Zafar said Dr Aafia was in a frail, weakened state but spoke coherently and confidently.

On the strip-searches she was subject to, he said: “It is undignified and in fact dehumanising.”

He said Dr Aafia’s lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, was “reputedly a good lawyer when it comes to human rights cases” but that her experience in criminal cases was limited. “She may not be up to the task of adequately defending Dr Aafia without the support of a defence team with expertise in criminal cases.”

He said the location of Dr Aafia’s children, apart from son Muhammad Ahmad who returned to Pakistan in September, remained unknown and the governments of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan should work to locate them.

On the subject of her repatriation to Pakistan, Senator Zafar said this could only occur if the case against Dr Aafia was withdrawn. He said the case should be withdrawn because of her ill health and the fact that she had been shot in the stomach at the time of her arrest.

Dr Aafia told the senators that during her detention at Bagram Air base, she had been subject to repeated and brutal beatings, torture, and indignities.

He urged US rights organisations to take up her case and that the government of Pakistan should play a more pro-active role in supporting her including in the provision of legal aid.