By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan is seeking consular access and a delegation of parliamentarians will visit USA to meet Afia Siddiqui currently under detention in New York.
Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq in his weekly briefing said the matter of Afia Siddiqui’s repatriation to Pakistan has also been taken up with the US authorities.
“Every possible effort is being made to protect Dr Afia Siddiqui’s rights as an under-trial prisoner,” he said.
The spokesman said on Pakistan’s demand that the children of Dr.
Afia be returned the US authorities have told Islamabad that they were not in their custody.
However, Pakistan will continue to look for the children, he added.
The spokesman rejected propaganda by the Western media that Dr.
Afia is a Ph.D either in Biosciences or Neurology and said she is an educationist with a Ph.D from Brandeis University, Boston. She was an undergraduate student in MIT, he added.
He said contrary to the impression created by this misinformation, her education in no way could have trained her for either chemical or biological warfare.
The spokesman said it is also incorrect that she has dual nationality and clarified that she is a Pakistani national.
He said Dr Fouzia Siddiqui, sister of Dr. Afia, met Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi yesterday and the Minister assured her of all possible assistance in this regard.
Replying to a questioner the spokesman said that the issue of violation of Pakistani territory by NATO and US forces in Afghanistan was taken up in the recently held Tripartite Commission in Kabul.