ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan on Monday disdained the comments made by US presidential front-runner Donald Trump and asserted that “the fate of Shakil Afridi will only be decided by Pakistani courts.”
According to Dawn, the minister was reacting to the recent interview given by Trump to Fox News, in which he had said that if elected, he will free the Pakistani doctor who is in jail now for helping the US raid Osama Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad in 2011.
“I think I would get him out in two minutes,” he said in response to a question during the interview last week, when asked if he would free Afridi.
Nisar said that contrary to Trump’s misconception, Pakistan is not a colony of the US. “He should learn to treat sovereign countries with respect,” the minister said.
“Afridi is a Pakistani citizen and nobody else holds the right to dictate to us about his future,” Nisar affirmed.
He said Trump also seems to be ignorant historically of the huge sacrifices Pakistan and its people have made, while standing with or supporting the US policies over the years.
During the interview when Trump was asked that how he would free Afridi, the US presidential front-runner had said, “I would tell them let him out and I’m sure they would let him out.”
The US Congress, which last week withdrew funds for an F-16 deal to force Pakistan to act against the Haqqani network, is now considering another cut, this time to persuade Islamabad to release Afridi.
Afridi, who assisted US efforts in tracking down Osama Bin Laden but is now serving a 23-year prison term in Pakistan, is considered a hero in the US.
In January 2014, President Barack Obama signed a bill that proposed to withhold $33 million from assistance to Pakistan over Afridi’s detention.
Trump has alarmed US allies with his combative rhetoric and his calls for an “America First” agenda that many see as a threat to retreat from the world.
Afridi has also been accused in Pakistan of running a fake vaccination campaign in which he purportedly collected DNA samples to help the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) track down bin Laden.
He has not been charged over those allegations. After his original conviction was overturned, he was charged in 2013 with murder relating to the death of a patient eight years earlier. He remains in jail. In the Fox interview Trump also said he supported leaving the roughly 10,000 US troops still based in Afghanistan instead of withdrawing them by the end of 2017.
“I would stay in Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s probably the one place we should have gone in the Middle East because it’s adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons.”
The US led the military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders following the Sept. 11 attacks.
According to Dawn, the minister was reacting to the recent interview given by Trump to Fox News, in which he had said that if elected, he will free the Pakistani doctor who is in jail now for helping the US raid Osama Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad in 2011.
“I think I would get him out in two minutes,” he said in response to a question during the interview last week, when asked if he would free Afridi.
Nisar said that contrary to Trump’s misconception, Pakistan is not a colony of the US. “He should learn to treat sovereign countries with respect,” the minister said.
“Afridi is a Pakistani citizen and nobody else holds the right to dictate to us about his future,” Nisar affirmed.
He said Trump also seems to be ignorant historically of the huge sacrifices Pakistan and its people have made, while standing with or supporting the US policies over the years.
During the interview when Trump was asked that how he would free Afridi, the US presidential front-runner had said, “I would tell them let him out and I’m sure they would let him out.”
The US Congress, which last week withdrew funds for an F-16 deal to force Pakistan to act against the Haqqani network, is now considering another cut, this time to persuade Islamabad to release Afridi.
Afridi, who assisted US efforts in tracking down Osama Bin Laden but is now serving a 23-year prison term in Pakistan, is considered a hero in the US.
In January 2014, President Barack Obama signed a bill that proposed to withhold $33 million from assistance to Pakistan over Afridi’s detention.
Trump has alarmed US allies with his combative rhetoric and his calls for an “America First” agenda that many see as a threat to retreat from the world.
Afridi has also been accused in Pakistan of running a fake vaccination campaign in which he purportedly collected DNA samples to help the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) track down bin Laden.
He has not been charged over those allegations. After his original conviction was overturned, he was charged in 2013 with murder relating to the death of a patient eight years earlier. He remains in jail. In the Fox interview Trump also said he supported leaving the roughly 10,000 US troops still based in Afghanistan instead of withdrawing them by the end of 2017.
“I would stay in Afghanistan,” he said. “It’s probably the one place we should have gone in the Middle East because it’s adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons.”
The US led the military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders following the Sept. 11 attacks.
