ISLAMABAD: The upper house of parliament was informed on Wednesday that2,396 Pakistani nationals were detained in Turkey’s detention centres forillegal immigration.
In response to the question of Senator Rana Mahmoodul Hassan, the Senatewas apprised that the number of detained Pakistanis kept on varyingdepending on the number of Pakistanis entering Turkey illegally.
Responding to a question raised by Senator Talha Mehmood, Minister forParliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati informed the house that thegovernment is fully seized of the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui and hadconsistently raised her case with US authorities, including possibility ofher repatriation to Pakistan.
Swati added that the Pakistan’s consul general in Houston also pays aregular visit to Dr Aafia.
She has been behind bars since 2010 on charges of attempted murder andmounting an assault on US military personnel and is serving an 86-yearsentence at the Federal Medical Centre, Carswell, Fort Worth in Texas.
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A request had been made by Islamabad to Washington for exploringpossibilities of accession to Inter-American Convention Serving CriminalSentences Abroad, 1993 to serve as the platform for negotiating options ofrepatriation of the detained doctor, said the parliamentary affairsminister.
He further briefed the Senate that the appeal against the sentence couldonly be filed by the convict as per the requirement of the US law, addingthat during the consular visit on April 18 this year Dr Aafia showed herwillingness to file an appeal against her sentence.
