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| India-Pakistan |
| Government vows good defence for Aafia Siddiqui |
| 2010-02-12 |
| Sorry, boys. You're a little late... [Dawn] The government assured the National Assembly on Thursday it would put up a "good defence" for Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui even at the next stage of her trial by a US court where a jury last week found her guilty of attempting to murder American soldiers in Afghanistan. "Justice is not being done (to her)," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Ahmed Khan said at the end of a one-sided debate in apparently Islamabad's strongest comment to date in what he called "a common cause" against the Feb 3 conviction in New York. He complained of that a Pakistani woman had been "maltreated" and said: "We all agree that somehow she should be brought back (to Pakistan)." She will be. Eventually. Probably in a box... But despite the near unanimity of stance in the house, neither the opposition nor the treasury benches moved any resolution on the issue although PPP chief whip and Labour and Manpower Minister Khurshid Ahmed Shah had said on Wednesday, in response to a demand from opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan, that the government would be prepared to pass a joint resolution. Harrrumph...harrrumph...harrrumph! Malik Amad referred to the next and final court session in May for sentencing, before an appeal can be made to a higher court, and said: "We will put up a strong defence. We will go all the way." Helpful hint? Over here, don't threaten to burn the appellate judge alive. They don't like that. The minister of state rejected opposition charges that the government had not done enough to secure Dr Aafia's return to Pakistan and said President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and he himself had been raising the matter with US authorities while the government also allocated $2 million for her legal defence. Such interactions, he said, also won her concessions such as meetings with a Senate delegation and family members, return of her 12-year-old son and improvement in prison conditions. All of more than 10 members from both the opposition and the ruling coalition, who spoke on the second day of the debate condemned Dr Aafia's conviction, though some called for a serious approach rather than rhetoric to fight her case even outside the court like pleading with the US Congress and administration. ADMONITIONS: The day was also marked by repeated admonitions by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi of members he blamed for disturbing the house either by crowding the desk of the prime minister or a minister apparently to get their papers signed or chatting between themselves disregarding the house proceedings. "Members are requested that this is not the prime minister's chambers," the chair remarked when several members stood beside Gilani's desk with papers they wanted him to sign, and asked them to keep discipline when an important bill was being moved. Kundi once asked Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf to "close your office because it disturbs me" as some members were seeking signatures of the minister seated on a front treasury bench, with a warning: "Otherwise I will take action." Later, the deputy speaker objected to some ministers chatting while standing in a corner of the house and asked them to "go the (members') lobby if they have to hold a meeting". GESTURE TO PML-N: In a gesture to the opposition PML-N, the prime minister asked Minister of State for Law and Justice Mehrin Anwar Raja to defer a bill before the house seeking to endorse a Musharraf-era ordinance on the National Commission for Human Development created in 2002 in order to accommodate amendments moved by some PML-N members. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Look, guys - the TRIAL is where you put on "a good defense", the "penalty phase" is usually where smart lawyers start whining and pleading for mercy a lot. Just so ya know. |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-02-12 15:36 |
| #1 "Justice is not being done (to her)," True, she's still alive. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-02-12 13:40 |