ISLAMABAD  -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday directed the Secretary Foreign Affairs to ensure the return of passport of Dr. Fouzia Siddiqui, the sister of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, currently incarcerated in the United States. A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan conducted hearing of a constitutional petition of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui who moved the court through her lawyer Imran Shafiq Advocate. Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, her counsel Imran Shafiq, Munawar Iqbal Duggal, and other concerned parties attended the proceedings. During the hearing, Dr. Fouzia Siddiqui informed the court that her visa had been issued, but her passport was not being returned. Responding to this, the court instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the return of her passport and directed the Foreign Secretary to ensure compliance.

The IHC bench was also told that the delegation has met Dr. Aafia in jail but it reached US with a delay of five days while Dr. Fozia Saddiqui, sister of Dr. Aafia could not join the delegation due to her visa issue. Later, the bench deferred hearing of the case directing the foreign secretary to address Dr. Fozia’s visa issue. After the last hearing, the IHC bench mentioned in his written order that per the latest declaration filed by Mr. Smith, and based on the submissions by the learned amicus and the petitioner’s counsel, the Pakistan delegation’s visit seems imperiled because the White House/State Department/ Department of Justice have not responded to MoFA’s letters requesting urgent scheduling of the meetings at the White House and other official departments. He added, “The dilemma that the delegation now faces is whether they should pay for this visit out of their own pocket or whether it will be funded by the Government. The Government’s stance is that it will be funded if it is an official visit but the “codal formalities” do not enable funding the visit if it is not marked as “official” per the regular norms.”

Justice Ishaq wrote, “The Government’s stance, I say with respect, appears paradoxical. On the one hand they are prepared to incur the expenses in the earnest expectation that the delegation will be able to hold the desired meetings at the White House/State Department/Department of Justice, while on the other hand they say that, if the delegation turns up in the U.S. on their non-official visas, which they currently have, in order to not lose any further time in the expectation that those meetings will indeed materialize, it would still not pay those expenses because the visit was undertaken by the members of the delegation on their non-official visas.”

“This stance appears fit for a script of a comic novel, but does not seem to be rational if there is a genuine underlying intent and commitment that the Government has to throw its weight and resources behind the cause. Accordingly, MoFA is directed to move immediately a summary before the Prime Minister for the worthy Prime Minister to consider whether this stance of the Government is rational, and whether his discretionary powers for sanctioning such expenditure could be properly exercised in these circumstances. This summary should be moved by MoFA within the next 24 hours,” said the IHC bench. It added that the other conundrum Dr. Fowzia and Dr. Iqbal as members of this delegation face is that their passports have been sent to the U.S. Embassy for the official visas but they need those passports back for them to be able to travel tomorrow on the flights they have already booked.

The bench pointed out that in the worst case scenario, Dr. Fowzia says that she would end up bearing her own expenses and that of Dr. Iqbal, in the same way that she has been all along using her personal resources at great expense to herself, and in such case she, Dr. Iqbal, and such Pakistani Americans who care to join them for the call at the White House and other State Department offices would have to settle for that, but that of course means that, despite the avowed intention of the Government expressed in the Court and in the letter of the Prime Minister, the Government’s delegation as intended will not materialize due to the Government- nominated members of the Parliament not showing up at that meeting as originally declared by the Government, and whether that degree of embarrassment can be measured in financial terms of the travel costs of the four members of the delegation.