Islamabad High Court Friday issued notices to secretaries of law, foreign affairs and finance in a petition seeking details of expenditures incurred upon legal remunerations in Dr Aafia Siddiqui trial in the US.
A single bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition moved by Chaudhary Hassan Sarfraz Bhalli and Muhammad Azam Minhas and issued the notices to the respondents in this matter.
The petitioners moved the petition through their counsel Barrister Dawood Pervez and cited the government of Pakistan through secretary Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, secretary Foreign Affairs, secretary Finance and auditor general of Pakistan through additional auditor general Pakistan, as respondents.
They stated that they wrote letters of request dated September 24, 2018 to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Office for access to information including public disclosure of budget allocation and detailed expenditure of financial transactions of Pakistan Embassy to Washington DC from year 2008-2011, minute details of expenditures incurred upon legal remunerations in Dr Aafia Siddiqui trial in the US, details of budget allocated for legal remuneration, receipts of approved quotations of funds and details of funds released for defence counsels contesting the Dr Aafia Siddiqui trial in the US.
The petitioners added that they requested access to this information under the Right of Access to Information Act 2017.
They informed the court that on May 23, 2018, Pakistan Counsel General Houston, Aisha Farooqui made consular visit to Dr Aafia Siddiqui in FMC Carswell, prison, Texas, and a report was formulated after the meeting and became public under named "A detailed report of the meeting of Consular visit to FMC Careswell to meet Dr Aafia Siddiqui on 23rd May 2018."
They maintained that on page 7 of the report, Dr Aafia Siddiqui has made an allegation as, "She accused a certain Asif Hussain, PA to former Ambassador Haqqani, of siphoning off the $2 million allocated by the government of Pakistan for her trial in 2010. She stated that this was public money of the people of Pakistan but had been taken by Asif Hussain and possibly Ambassador Husain Haqqani also who she described as unhelpful and not at all interested in helping her case."
They informed the court that in 2010, a report submitted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Senate Standing Committee on Interior Affairs revealed Dr Aafia Siddiqui Attorney Trust Account and misappropriation in it.
"The report continued to say that the Ambassador to Pakistan Husain Haqqani formed a committee of three officers to ensure transparency and monitor the expenditure of the Attorney's Trust Account. The committee directed Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to conduct an internal audit of the money spent on the legal team and submit its detailed report at the next meeting. The report never made public," said the petition.
They added that the report and audit investigation had been stopped at the time and never made public. Therefore, they prayed to the court to direct the respondents to provide paper book document of budget allocation and detailed expenditure of financial transactions of Pakistan Embassy to Washington DC from year 2008-2011, provide minute details of expenditures incurred upon legal remunerations in Dr Aafia Siddiqui trial in the UA and provide detail of budget allocated for legal remuneration and receipts of approved quotations of funds.
They also requested to provide details of funds released for defence counsels contesting the Dr Aafia Siddiqui trial in US and provide a report submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Dr Aafia Siddiqui Attorney Trust Account and an audit report on it.
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