ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The Pakistan Professional Forum (PPF) held a protest demonstration on Friday against the arrest of Dr Amir Aziz, allegedly by the FBI, on suspicions of having links with Al Qaeda.

About 300 protesters, mostly doctors, lawyers and engineers, marched in front of the United Nations office to convey their concerns to the international body and the government.

Dr Saeed Akhtar, a PPF member, told the local and foreign journalists that Dr Amir’s arrest had sent negative signals to the professionals of the country, be it doctors or engineers, who were feeling unsafe after the incident.

Answering a question, he said: “We are protesting against the government of Pakistan, not the FBI, which seems less committed to the honour and safety of their citizens”. He said the incident showed as if the people were living in a country without rule of law.

He termed the arrest as kidnapping and asked the government to grant Dr Aziz his legal right to challenge his arrest in the court of law.

Dr Akhtar said a set procedure was in place to convict a person, following a legal course of action, and if the government was sure that Dr Aziz was involved in certain unlawful activities, he should have been arrested openly after registration of a case.

It was a mockery of the rule of law and justice that a doctor, belonging to the most respectable profession all over the world, had been picked up, allegedly by the American intelligence agency, four days ago, and his whereabouts were still not known.

Another PPF member criticized interior minister Gen Moinuddin Haider (retired) who, he said, had refused to talk about Dr Aziz’s detention. It was unlike an interior minister of a country who was supposed to be in charge of law enforcement agencies, he added.

The protesters were holding placards reading, “don’t violate human rights of Pakistanis”, “why FBI harassing top Pakistani brains,” etc.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Medical Organization (PMO), in a press statement, condemned the Bush administration in connection with Dr Aziz’s arrest.

Prof (Dr) Anwarul Haq, the PMO president, was quoted as saying, it was the duty of all doctors to treat patients irrespective of ethnicity, political beliefs, colour, religion etc.

He said the vast majority of people round the world were convinced that Osama Bin Ladin was not involved in the attacks in New York and Washington.

On the other hand, he said, the whole world was witnessing state terrorism of Sharon, who was demolishing the homes of poor Palestinian, killing children, women and elderly, but the United States could not do much about it. He demanded immediate release of Dr Aziz.