ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi said on Wednesday that the government was not under pressure from the United States to release Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who ran a fake vaccination campaign for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to confirm Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad ahead of a deadly attack in May 2011 that resulted in the killing of Al Qaeda’s founder.
The minister made the statement in Senate while responding to a question about speculations that the Americans wanted to extradite Dr Afridi and were already in conversation on the subject with the Pakistani authorities. While he maintained he was not aware of any such request from Washington, he said there would be no compromise on the country’s national security.
It may be recalled that US President Donald Trump had said during his election campaign in 2016 that he could make Pakistan cooperate on the Shakil Afridi issue while talking to a local news channel.
“I think I would get him out in two minutes,” Trump had said. “I would tell them let him out and I’m sure they would let him out. Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.”
This had generated an angry response from the previous administration in Islamabad, prompting the former Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to point out that his country was not an American colony and could independently decide Dr Afridi’s fate.
The Pakistani physician was sentenced to 33 years in prison. He was also accused of being close to Mangal Bagh’s militant faction and killing one of his patients due to professional negligence.
On Wednesday, Shehryar Afridi also assured the Senate that any extradition request from the US would be placed before the country’s parliament for a thorough debate.
