Has Pakistan Done Enough for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui?
Aafia's lawyer, Maria Kari, weighs in on the proceedings ongoing in Islamabad, Pakistan.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For the first time in over a decade of writing for Pakistani newspapers, I was denied editorial permission to publish the following article by all of Pakistan’s major English-language newspapers. Without explanation, without justification. The silence of the editors who I have known and worked with for years speaks volumes. Make no mistake, the efforts to bury my client Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s story is deliberate. But my co-counsel, Clive, and I have always said: we are not here to re-litigate what was done to Aafia by the Pakistanis and Americans. We know the truth, and so do those who had a hand in locking her away for a lifetime (first at Bagram in Afghanistan and then in the House of Horrors that is FMC Carswell). But, two decades later what matters is simple: Aafia deserves to spend her remaining years with her two surviving children and her sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, who has spent twenty agonizing years fighting for her sister’s freedom.
Below is the article Pakistani media refused to publish. It tells the story the Pakistani government will not let us tell you.
We call her the Daughter of the Nation, yet today, we are failing her in the most shameful way possible.
For decades, Aafia Siddiqui has been a stain on our collective conscience—a Pakistani citizen who was abducted, disappeared, and sentenced in a sham trial to 86 years in a U.S. prison, where she has been brutalized, degraded, and forgotten.
The Pakistani government has long professed to champion her cause, but its true colors are now showing. In the Islamabad High Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) made a stunning declaration: they have done enough for Aafia, and [ed note: as far as the Pakistani government is concerned] the legal battle for her freedom must end.
Enough?
Enough, when she faces daily sexual assault at FMC Carswell?
Enough, when she is denied medical care unless she strips naked?
Enough, when she is blocked from meeting with an imam even during Ramadan?
Enough, when she remains imprisoned despite clear evidence of her innocence?
Enough, even when no genuine efforts have been made to secure her repatriation?
This is not just injustice—it is abandonment. Aafia is being cast aside, not by her captors, but by the very nation that should be fighting for her.
The failures do not stop there. The U.S. Consulate in Houston has refused to act on Aafia’s reports of sexual assault. Pakistani officials have ignored medical reports detailing her suffering. Even Biden’s diplomatic snub—his refusal to respond to Prime Minister Sharif’s letter—has been meekly accepted. And now, MOFA wants to wash its hands of Aafia entirely.
The government has had ample opportunities to act yet insists it is powerless. One glaring example is its claim that a prisoner swap between Aafia and Shakil Afridi is impossible due to the lack of a formal legal framework between the U.S. and Pakistan. Either MOFA is deliberately misleading the court or it is woefully uninformed.
Prisoner swaps are inherently political. The U.S. has negotiated high-profile exchanges with Russia and Iran—nations it considers adversaries—without formal agreements, relying instead on diplomacy. Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with deep security and intelligence cooperation, has far greater leverage. The truth is not that a swap is impossible, but that MOFA refuses to even try.
The betrayal runs deeper still.
Last year, our legal team filed a lawsuit exposing the constitutional violations Aafia has suffered for decades. The Pakistani government has not filed a single document in support. It has failed to pressure the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to meet its most basic obligations. Even something as simple as obtaining Aafia’s inmate account—critical for proving her indigency and reducing legal costs—has turned into a legal battle, with Pakistan nowhere to be found.
As the BOP pushes to dismis our case, urgent action is needed. Yet, despite multiple requests, Pakistan has refused to file an amicus brief in support of her fight against sexual assault, medical neglect, and religious suppression.Pakistan’s obligation to provide legal assistance to its citizens is enshrined under the Vienna Conventions and the Diplomatic and Consular Act of 1972, yet it continues to neglect its legal duties.
The hypocrisy is glaring.
How can the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ignore that Aafia has been denied access to an imam for over a year? How can it stand by as she endures another Ramadan in isolation, unable to fully practice her faith?
Pakistan rightly advocates for the rights of Muslims in Kashmir and Palestine—so why does it remain silent when its own citizen is denied the most basic religious freedoms in an American prison?
The evidence of Aafia’s innocence continues to mount. Yet, she has spent over 5,000 days in prison for crimes she did not commit.
Pakistan must decide: will it fight for its daughter, or will it abandon her to die in silence?
The answer will not be forgotten.
Is this --- "The silence of the editors who I have known and worked with for years speaks volumes. " -- is this a new thing since or after Imran Khan's ouster? Looks like the CIA/USA has kompromat on literally all of them.