No ordinary person
by
Javed Hafiz |
Afridi may not be a saint but he certainly has a right to due process
I normally resist the temptation of discussing individuals in these columns but then Dr Shakil Afridi is no ordinary individual. He is the person who helped CIA in ascertaining Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts through a fake vaccination campaign in Abbotabad. He was an employee of the Pakistan government, worked for a foreign intelligence agency and the latest information is that he was also in cahoots with the Pakistani Taliban. In fact, the jail sentence of 33 years awarded to him is for his close ties with Lashkare Islam, a terrorist outfit and its leader Mangal Bagh.
Indeed the Americans and many Pakistanis were under the impression until past week that Afridi had been sentenced for working for the CIA. But the judgment of the assistant political agent of Khyber Agency, Afridi’s place of domicile and work, made pubic, clearly says that his court had no jurisdiction to probe his links to a foreign intelligence agency. He has been convicted for financially assisting the terrorist outfit and treating its injured fighters. Afridi has landed in Peshawar jail but the provincial government is afraid for his security. They have requested the federal government to assume his custody. Afridi will face a separate trial for helping the CIA.
Spying, they say, is the second oldest profession and half as honourable! The murky world of spying is exciting but dangerous. And myths woven around it by the spy movies may only be half true. An agent caught in the hostile territory is certain to face dire consequences. But Afridi became an instant hero in the United states, last year. Secretary Clinton and a number of US congressmen have criticised Pakistan for sentencing Afridi. Senator Rand Paul went to the extent of asking the US government to cut all assistance to Pakistan and granting US citizenship to Afridi. But most nations do not take kindly to any spying activities on their soil by foreign agents and feel doubly hurt if the agent is their own national. The case of Jonathan Pollard, a US national who spied for Israel in 1980’s and is still languishing in US jails, comes instantly to mind.
Afridi has been convicted in this case under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), a law special to the tribal areas. I remember that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in his very first speech before the National Assembly, had vowed to repeal this law. Afridi was arrested soon after the Abbotabad assault and was kept in the custody of security agencies for almost a year. And now this decision has come suddenly after a rather swift hearing. This man may not be clean but he must be given all opportunities to defend himself even in the highest court of appeal. Even the instant and unilateral punishment meted out to Osama Bin Laden last May by the sole super power should have been avoided, in my opinion. Many doubting Johns say even today that the person killed that night was not Osama as he had died earlier. I do not buy that kind of stuff as none of Osama’s widows has questioned the authenticity of Abbotabad operation. However, the US image would have taken a boost if Osama had been arrested that night and produced before an international court. But then President Obama was in such a great hurry to have that shining feather in his cap, 18 months before re-election.
Afridi may not be a saint but he certainly has a right to due process. The trial ought to be fair and transparent in both cases of alleged links with terrorists and helping a foreign intelligence agency. Afridi’s colleagues in the medical profession have criticised his conduct on ethical grounds. Doctors without Frontiers, a respected non governmental international organisation has condemned the act of fake vaccination campaign to get Bin Laden family DNA samples. This has brought into question even genuine humanitarian work done by international medical aid organisations, in their opinion.
The US Congressmen, it would appear, were jumping the gun in labelling the sentence of 33 years as unfair. But what about 86 years in prison awarded to a rather frail Pakistani lady who allegedly tried to snatch arms from a US soldier at Bagram base in Afghanistan. The prescription of fair trial is applicable to both Afia Siddiqui and Shakil Afridi in equal measure. While the circumstantial evidence in the case of Afia Siddiqui is weak, Afridi was certainly a CIA informer. US appeals and pressures to exonerate him prove the allegation, in great measure. The US should respect Pakistani courts and only request the Pakistani authorities to give Afridi a transparent trial.
Oman Tribune
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