KARACHI  - Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s family has reacted cautiously to the Prime Minister’s proposed establishment of a committee to secure Dr Aafia’s release.
While addressing a meeting at the Aafia Movement Secretariat, Dr Fauzia, the sister of Dr Aafia said the committee would be a welcome development if it acts seriously to achieve results rather than being another simple paper entity whose sole purpose is to be a press release and delay and diffuse the matter once again.??
She said the actions required of the Pakistani government are not difficult or complicated but they do require principle, boldness and urgency. Based on the discussions between former US attorney general, Ramsey Clark, Prime Minister Raja Ashraf and Dr Fauzia, the committee should be able to accomplish its actions within a week if it is to be considered genuine. Failure to act within this reasonable time frame would just confirm that those in control of the government remain unable or unwilling to seek Aafia’s repatriation.
This will also further erode confidence in an establishment that unfortunately uses committees, commissions and resolutions only as a mean to gloss over serious problems rather than actually work towards action able solutions and real results. As Mr Clark reminded us all, Aafia’s repatriation is a relatively simple matter if approached confidently and correctly, said Dr Fauzia.
She said yet if the government was unable to act resolutely on something so simple as Aafia’s repatriation, it would be clear that there is no ability to deal with more complex matters like drones, loadshedding, security, law and order, education, healthcare, separation of Balochistan, fragmentation of a national identity, religious intolerance, abuse of women and minorities and the list goes on. Aafia is just a letter away, she said, adding this was agreed upon by all core campaign members worldwide.