ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has summoned defence and interior ministers to brief members of the upper house of parliament on Monday on the “jailbreak plan” aimed at setting free Dr Shakeel Afridi, the man who allegedly helped the Central Intelligence Agency of the US track down Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani raised the matter in the house on Friday and said media reports suggested that Dr Afridi had been moved from a prison in Peshawar to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.

He also referred to foreign media reports about an abortive plan orchestrated by the CIA to break Peshawar jail to set Dr Afridi free. Speculations about the plan were fuelled by reports that the physician had been airlifted to Rawalpindi.

Leader of the opposition assails govt for not allocating ample funds to water schemes

There were reports also of a deal between the US and Pakistan for Afridi’s release, which were denied by the Foreign Office on Thursday.

“We heard about all this in the media, but the refusal by the Foreign Office spokesman to confirm reports about the jailbreak plan, shifting responsibility to the interior ministry, made us believe that reports about CIA’s attempt to secure release of Dr Afridi were true,” said Mr Rabbani.

Soon after Osama bin Laden’s killing in Abbottabad in May 2011 at the hands of American commandos, the US media had reported that Dr Afridi had contributed to the success of the CIA operation by collecting DNA samples of the Al Qaeda leader’s family. The then CIA director Leon Panetta and then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had confirmed the physician’s role in eliminating bin Laden, following which Dr Afridi had been arrested.

The US military operation in Abbottabad was viewed by Islamabad as a violation of its sovereignty and led to strains in relations with Washington.

Even though he was accused of running a spying network in Pakistan on behalf of the CIA, Dr Afridi was tried on charges relating to links to a militant organisation.

He was initially sentenced to 33 years in jail. However, the sentence was later reduced to 10 years following his appeal against the judgement.

Water shortage

Speaking on the floor of the house, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Sherry Rehman called for steps for resolving the problem of water shortage. “We are already in a water crisis. We are running out of groundwater and if no action is taken now, we will end up having to ration water,” she said.

Turning to the issue of climate change, the PPP leader said: “On top of all this, we are witnessing extreme weather conditions in Pakistan. Only a few days ago, temperature soared to 51 degrees Celsius in Nawabshah, Sindh. This is the highest April temperature ever recorded on Earth!”

Ms Rehman said the government, instead of allocating 10 per cent of the money set aside for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) to water projects, had slashed PSDP funds by 20pc. The government had allocated only Rs38 billion to water schemes.

“It is extremely disturbing that Sindh and Balochistan have low representation in the National Water Council which will be headed by the prime minister,” she said.

“The government needs to focus on water conservation through small interventions at the local level and stress on the importance of crop pattern change, bio-saline agriculture and water reuse practices,” she said.

“This is not a matter for political point-scoring. We must all come together to ensure that the next generation will have ample supply of water. It is our collective responsibility as elders and as parliamentarians,” added the leader of the opposition in Senate.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2018