THE Abbottabad inquiry commission's recommendation that a case of treason be registered against Shakil Afridi, the doctor who set up a fake polio vaccination campaign to try and get DNA samples from the residents of the compound Osama bin Laden was hiding in, merits some debate. First, the legal principles at stake. The reports on the commission's recommendation do not make clear whether it is a trial under Article 6 of the constitution (high treason) that is being sought or whether Dr Afridi is to be prosecuted for engaging in espionage activities for a foreign intelligence agency. At one level, the case may seem fairly straightforward: taking money to aid a foreign intelligence agency is a crime in countries across the world. Indeed, the recent case brought in the US against Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai for allegedly taking money from a Pakistani intelligence agency to lobby the US government is a pertinent example.

Yet, the case of Dr Shakil Afridi ought to be seen outside the confines of a narrow interpretation of the law. Dr Afridi was part of an effort to catch the world's most wanted terrorist who was hiding on Pakistani soil. In doing so, it is highly unlikely that he was aware of the plans for a unilateral American raid on Pakistani soil; after all, in the past there has been much cooperation between the US and Pakistan on the capture of senior Al Qaeda leaders. So what exactly is the Pakistani national interest that has been harmed by Dr Afridi in helping locate the world's most wanted terrorist on Pakistani soil? In most other countries, a case like Dr Afridi's might have met with a different response. There is an even more distressing aspect to this tale of transnational subterfuge: reportedly, incensed by the American-sponsored ploy, the security apparatus has tightened its monitoring of international aid agencies and local NGOs involved in the health sector, potentially disrupting the urgent work of stamping out the polio virus that has been resurgent in Pakistan in recent years. Must innocent children suffer because of cloak-and-dagger games between states?