LAHORE: Jamaate Islami (JI) Ameer Sirajul-Haq has recommended the government to appeal to the outgoing US President Obama to order the release of Pakistan’s respected lady Dr Aafia Siddiqui on humanitarian grounds.
Talking to media outside the Supreme Court after a hearing of the Panama Leaks case on Wednesday.
Sirajul said that President Obama had already ordered the release of nearly 1300 prisoners under his special powers and he expects an encouraging response if the foreign office appealed to the outgoing president about the doctors release
He said he would talk to the Foreign Ministry and also highlight the issue in the Senate.
He said that Dr Aafia was a respectable Pakistani lady who has been in US jail for no reason at all, and it was the responsibility of the government to make every effort for her safe return.
The JI chief reiterated that the Supreme Court larger bench hearing the Panama leaks case should direct Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stop carrying out official duties until the decision of the case was announced.
He said he was not demanding prime minister’s resignation as that would be beforehand.
However, he said that since four members of the Prime Minister’s family had been named in the case, the PM should be asked to stop officiating in order to ensure free and fair probe into the matter by the National Accountability Bureau, FIA and other state institutions and agencies.
He said that the rulers were the root cause of corruption and all other evils in the society and loot and plunder of the public money could not be stopped without the accountability of the rulers.
He said that the Panama papers were genuine and the PM had himself admitted that the names of his sons were included in the papers and had even offered himself for accountability.
Siraj said that the bench hearing the Panama leaks case comprised of able and competent judges and the JI expected a good judgment from them.
