Pakistan denies identity cards to family of doctor who helped trace bin Laden
Pakistan has denied identity cards to the family of Shakeel Afridi, the jailed doctor who helped the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents hunt down former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Qamar Nadeem, the family's lawyer, said in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday that Afridi’s 19-year-old daughter and 21-year-old son have been denied national identity cards.
The lawyer said he had received no response to his letters to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that issues ID cards, which are key documents for establishing Pakistanis' citizenship.
"Getting an identity card is a fundamental right of every citizen and if NADRA or the interior ministry refuse to issue them, we will approach the Peshawar High Court for justice," the lawyer said.
Afridi was accused of treason after he helped the CIA collect DNA samples of the bin Laden family, paving the way for a secret US Navy Seal raid that allegedly killed the al Qaeda leader in the town of Abbottabad.
He was arrested days after the US operation.
Afridi was convicted in May 2012 of “conspiring against the state” by giving money and providing medical treatment to militants, not for helping the CIA with a fake vaccination campaign to capture bin Laden. Afridi was initially sentenced to 33 years in jail, but the sentence was later commuted.
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Last May, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry angrily criticized US President Donald Trump for a comment during his election campaign that he could get Pakistan to free Afridi "within two minutes."
After Trump was inaugurated last month, Pakistan's Law Minister Zahid Hamid vowed not to yield to US pressure for the release of Afridi.
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