The fifth anniversary of the American raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden was marked in the US with the usual Yankee mixture of ultra-nationalism and paeans to their own greatness. The likely Republican nominee for the presidential election, Donald Trump, brought a different, almost forgotten, aspect of the OBL saga. He promised that Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA carry out a fake hepatitis vaccination camp to collect the DNA of people in Abbottabad, would be freed within ‘two minutes’ if he (Trump) were president. The usual Trump arrogance obscured the fact that what he is proposing actually enjoys bipartisan support in the US. There have been recent news reports that the US Congress is considering reducing aid to Pakistan until Afridi is freed. Unlike with the F-16 deal, which the Republicans have voted to scuttle, this measure seems to enjoy the support of the Obama administration. The signal such a move would send is similar to that in 1989 after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan. We would once again essentially be told by the US that we no longer matter now that its interests in the region are no longer as intense as before.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar gave an appropriate response to Trump when he said the ‘peanuts’ the US gives us in aid compared to all we have sacrificed since the ‘war on terror began’ does not give it a right to start dictating to us. However, this does not mean we should not revisit the Afridi case – but we should do it on our own terms and not because the US considers him a hero. It is important to note that Afridi was given a 33-year sentence, later reduced to 23 years, not for his CIA work but for aiding militant group Lashkar-e-Islam. His trial was flawed since he was not allowed to present a defence for himself in court and was tried by a political agent under the notorious Frontier Crimes Regulation. It is likely this was done because the government wanted a quick conviction. There would be no better way to mark the anniversary of the OBL raid – an event that had showed that the US cared nothing for sovereignty so long as it got ‘justice’ as defined by the Americans – than by renewing our own commitment to rule of law. We do not need to release Afridi but we should try him for his CIA spying – and in a mainstream court.http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/117256-Trump-and-Afridi
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