Statement on Dr Aafia was quoted out of context: FO Spokesperson

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Faisal said on Thursday that Pakistan is engaged in bringing back Dr Aafia Siddiqui home and his recent statement on her was taken out of context.

Dr Faisal reportedly told an international news outlet that Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three jailed in the US for almost a decade, herself does not want to return to Pakistan.

Faisal said if Prime Minister Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump held a meeting, the discussion could be held on the exchange of Aafia and Dr Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who had helped US authorities track down al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

“We are raising Dr Aafia’s issue in Islamabad and Washington. We are in contact with her family. The Pakistani diplomatic mission in Houston met with Dr Aafiya on April 18,” he said in the weekly press briefing.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan is concerned of the deteriorating health of Hurriyat leader Yaseen Malik.

“Despite ill health, he has been shifted to the Tihar Jail. He is not allowed to meet his family,” he said.