Dr Afridi's sentencing

The doctor who helped the US track down and kill the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, has been sentenced to 33-year imprisonment on treason charges, triggering a controversy at home and an unwarranted reaction from a US Senate panel of "symbolic" $33 million aid cut - one million for each year of sentence.
Dr Shakeel Afridi may not have many sympathizers in this country, not only because of what he did at the behest of a foreign intelligence agency, but also because the fake polio vaccination campaign he conducted under a false NGO's name to collect bin Laden's DNA also undermined public trust in NGOs engaged in legitimate activities as well as the government efforts towards polio eradication. It may have strengthened the stance of extremists in Fata and some other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who had already been telling people the government's polio vaccination drive was a Western conspiracy to harm them, and hence needed to be resisted.
Yet the sentence raises serious questions. The government has badly mishandled the case. First of all is the manner of Dr Afridi's conviction. He was tried in secret by a council of elders headed by the Assistant Political Agent of Bara teshil in the Khyber Agency, under the infamous colonial era Frontier Crimes Regulation. He was denied due process, even access to a defence counsel. As for the crime itself, he has been punished under three different sections of the FCR, which basically deal with conspiracy to wage war against Pakistan and "advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty". The charges seem irrelevant considering that the activity involved a single individual whom the international community had declared a terrorist. And there was $25 million head money on him.
Then there is also the fact that in the past the government's own agencies, as claimed by former president General Musharraf in his book, had arrested several al Qaeda men and handed them over to the Americans and collected bounties on them. Dr Afridi may not have seen any harm in doing the same. Whatever his motive, he must get a fair chance for defence. It is hoped the apex court will take suo motu notice of the case and ensure he gets due process. Meanwhile, the US Senators who voted unanimously on Thursday to cut $33 million from the aid to Islamabad need to realise that such threats harm rather than help Dr Afridi's case. Threats and punitive measures such as this have an effect opposite to the one intended; they only reinforce increasing anti-Americanism in this country.