Dr Aafia Siddiqui signs clemency petition

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan on Thursday informed the Senate that Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the United States, has signed a clemency petition. 

The News reported that Awan, who was speaking on behalf of the foreign minister during the question-hour, said Dr Aafia's petition was being sent to US President Donald Trump through the jail department. 

The neuroscientist previously had certain reservations but had agreed to sign the clemency petition on September 24. 

Dr Aafia was indicted by a New York federal district court in September 2008 on charges of attempted murder and assault, stemming from an incident during an interview with the US authorities in Ghazni, Afghanistan — charges that she denied.

After 18 months in detention, she was tried and convicted in early 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison. She has since been imprisoned in the US.

CPEC Authority questioned

The publication also reported that former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani alleged that the government had deliberately let the CPEC Authority Ordinance lapse, as it wanted to put CPEC on the backburner and give an exemption to authority chairman and its members from accountability.

Read more: Dr Aafia Siddiqui's mother writes open letter to PM Imran Khan

Speaking on his calling attention on the ordinance, Rabbani noted that the ordinance was promulgated on October 8, 2019, and it lapsed in February this year after 120 days as per Article 89 of the Constitution, and it was re-promulgated and lapsed on June 4 after 120 days.

“From June 4 onwards to this day, there was no law under which the authority was working, having big funds and staff and carrying out activities and replied himself that obviously the authority was working in the air without the related law,” said the PPP senator.

The senator said that Rabbani said he knew through a bill, the government wanted to give immunity to the authority chairman and its members so that the NAB could not be applied on them but on all others.

Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz, responding to Rabbani, said the CPEC Authority was working hard but the opposition tried unsuccessfully to destroy it like the rest of the institutions.

“And we will not allow you to do so. A bill is being presented in the National Assembly on this count,” he said and during his speech, the opposition senators staged a token walkout from the House.

Read more: PPP demands resignation of President Arif Alvi

He said there were political, foreign and legal aspects of CPEC and that the project was between the two countries, people and the states and when it was talked about negatively, and confusion created, it affected the project as well as our foreign policy. He alleged they (opposition) were trying to please their enemies but were upsetting their friends in the process.