Washington: Finally the incarcerated Pakistani physician Shakil Afridi, who helped Washington to nail Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, may be freed as United States and Pakistan appear to be edging towards a swap between the physician for a Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui who is currently imprisoned in Texas.
Indications that some kind of deal came to light after the Pakistani consul general in Houston Aisha Farooqi met with Aafia Siddiqui at a federal prison outside Fort Worth, Texas, where she is serving an 86-year sentence after being convicted of assault and attempted murder of US military personnel.
Meanwhile, Afridi has been moved from the Peshawar prison to an undisclosed location. Speculation about a possible swap has been in the air for some time, but Islamabad has scoffed at the idea. In fact, reports in sections of the Pakistani media say Afridi was moved following fears of Americans engineering a jailbreak to free him.
But such dealmaking is not new to Pakistan and its political and social culture. In fact, reports that are often rejected by Pakistan, such as last month’s freeing of an American diplomat who was said to have run over a Pakistani national after allegedly jumping a red light, turned out to be accurate after Islamabad initially thwarted his return to US.
Last week, Pakistan’s former military chief and president Pervez Musharraf suggested in an interview that Islamabad could trade Afridi for Mullah Fazlulla, who Musharraf believes is accessible to the US in Afghanistan. The US has repeatedly asked Pakistan to ensure Afridi’s health and well-being even as American lawmakers, notably California Republican Dana Rohrabacher, have hailed him as an American hero, and sought to put Congressional pressure on Pakistan to release him, including holding up aid.
Lawmakers have also argued for a Congressional medal and a US citizenship for Afridi for his help in eliminating bin Laden, but the Pakistani establishment sees his actions as treason. All these developments came even as Islamabad sent a new ambassador to Washington this week amid much controversy in Pakistan. Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, a young Cornell-educated investment banker, took over as Pakistan’s envoy to the US last week after weeks of furore in Pakistan over his qualifications and experience – or lack of it. A BA in Economics from Cornell, Siddiqui, who is said to be only around 40, is possibly the youngest Pakistani ambassador to the US, and is clearly resented by the country’s foreign service cadre that has periodically snagged the job.
