The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee has inserted language that appears to place strings on the $33 million in aid that would go to Pakistan making the funds contingent on freeing the doctor who helped the CIA find and identify Osama bin Laden.
The language that appears to withhold the aid unless the State Department certifies Doctor Shakil Afridi has been released from prison where he is serving a 33-year sentence on a dubious conspiracy conviction has left Pakistani officials fuming. “Any linkage of US assistance to this case is not in keeping with the spirit of cooperation between the two countries,” said Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam.
President Obama signed the bill on January 17. As a so-called omnibus legislation, it includes appropriations for all federal agencies, including the State Department. The Pakistan portion of the appropriation can be made conditional on a determination by Secretary of State John Kerry that Afridi has been released and cleared of all charges. The state Department has repeatedly decried Pakistan’s treatment of Afridi but officials did not say if Kerry is prepared to withhold the funding. “We have seen the language in the bill; we are reviewing it, and will comply with the law,” said State Department spokesperson Peter Velasco.
“Our overall position on Dr. Afridi has long been clear,” Velasco added. “We believe his treatment is both unjust and unwarranted. We regret that he was convicted and the severity of his sentence. The prosecution and conviction of Dr. Afridi sends exactly the wrong message about the importance of our shared interest in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.”
Aslam insisted that Afridi, a Pakistani citizen who has admitted he helped the U.S. in the hunt for Bin Laden out of love for America is a criminal. Pakistan, which was deeply embarrassed when a Navy Seal raid showed the Al Qaeda leader had been living in a compound in Abbottabad, claims Afridi’s immunization ruse to try to obtain the terrorist’s DNA discouraged people from getting immunized for polio.
After the raid, Afridi was charged with “conspiring against the state” and imprisoned for 33 years without bail and even though that sentence was overturned by a tribal court last year, he is still being held and barred from visits from family and attorneys.
Afridi’s lawyer, Qamar Nadeem Afridi said, “I think this certainly has put immense pressure on the government to seriously look at his case which they were ignoring for years.”