PESHAWAR, Nov 22: The lawyers representing Dr Shakil Afridi raised some technical objections before the court of Frontier Crimes Regulation Commissioner on Thursday stating that an accused could only be tried for anti-state activities if the federal or provincial government filed written complaint where as in the instant case no such complaint was available on record.

The lawyers, representing Dr Shakil in his appeal against his conviction and sentence of 33 years imprisonment, said that he was convicted on charges of having links with a defunct organisation, Lashkar-i-Islam, whereas the prosecution could not prove any link between them.

A special prosecutor of the tribal administration of Khyber Agency rebutted their arguments and contended that the trial was conducted in a fair manner under the mechanism provided in FCR.

The commissioner, Mr Tariq Jamil, who is the appellate forum under the FCR, heard partial arguments in the appeal and adjourned the hearing to Dec 13.

Advocates Abdul Lateef Afridi and Samiullah Afridi, representing Dr Shakil, pointed out that trial for the offences for which Dr Shakil was charged could only be conducted if the federal government or a provincial government filed written complaint. They added that in the instant case neither the federal nor the provincial government had lodged any written complaint.

The convict’s brother Jamil Afridi had field the appeal on his behalf stating that the lower court passed the impugned conviction order on mere surmises and conjectures, therefore the order was liable to be dismissed and the appellant should be acquitted.

Dr Afridi, a former agency surgeon, was picked up allegedly by an intelligence agency in May last year on suspicion of helping the American CIA to trace Osama bin Laden by carrying out a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad. However, he was not convicted on that charge.

He was shifted to Peshawar jail on May 23, 2012, after his conviction by the assistant political agent of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency. He has now been detained in solitary confinement.

The appellant was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each under sections 121 A (conspiracy to wage war against country or depriving Pakistan of its sovereignty), section 123 (concealing existence of a plan to wage war against Pakistan), and 123 A  (condemnation of the creation of the state and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of PPC, and was sentenced to additional three years under section 124 (assaulting president, governor, etc, with intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of PPC.

The APA pronounced that the prison terms would run consecutively, which means that Dr Afridi has to spend 33 years in prison.

His lawyers have also raised a technical objection regarding powers of the APA stating that he has the powers to convict a person up to seven years imprisonment but the appellant was sentenced to 33 years imprisonment that was beyond his powers.