PESHAWAR, Aug 30: Hearing into the appeal of Dr Shakil Afridi challenging his conviction and sentencing to 33 years rigorous imprisonment by a court in tribal areas could not be held on Thursday due to unavailability of Frontier Crimes Regulation commissioner Tariq Jamil.

The commissioner, who is the appellate forum under the FCR, had gone to Nowshera in connection with the relief work carried out in flood-hit areas.

A panel of lawyers appearing for the appellant and headed by Samiullah Afridi visited the office of the commissioner, but it was informed that Mr Jamil had gone to Nowshera. The office of the commissioner fixed Sept 27 for the next hearing.

During the last hearing on July 19, Mr Jamil, who is also the commissioner of Peshawar division, had received record of the case from the office of assistant political agent, Bara, and fixed Aug 30 for arguments in the appeal.

Jamil Afridi, the convict’s brother, had filed the appeal on Dr Shakil’s behalf, stating that the lower court passed the impugned conviction order on mere surmises and conjectures, therefore the order was liable to be dismissed and the appellant should be acquitted.

Dr Shakil, a former agency surgeon, was picked up allegedly by an intelligence agency in May last year on suspicion of helping the American CIA to trace Osama bin Laden by carrying out a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad. However, he was convicted on charges of proscribed Lashkar-i-Islam by the APA, Bara (Khyber Agency), on May 23.

Advocate Samiullah Afridi told Dawn that under Section 50 of the FCR, the appellate authority should dispose of the appeal within 60 days.

He pointed out that around three months had passed since they filed the present appeal, but it could not be decided in the mandatory 60 days.

The appellant was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment each under Section 121 A (conspiracy to wage war against country or depriving Pakistan of its sovereignty), Section 123 (concealing existence of a plan to wage war against Pakistan), and 123 A  (condemnation of the creation of the State and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of the PPC, and was sentenced to additional three years under Section 124 (Assaulting president, governor, etc., with intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of the PPC.

The APA pronounced that the prison terms would run consecutively, which means that Dr Shakil has to spend 33 years in prison.

Denying all the charges leveled against him, the appellant stated in the appeal that he had no association with the defunct Lashkar-i-Islam and the members of the said organisation never sat or gathered in his office or were associated with him.