Sharif assures US about reviewing ‘Osama doc’ Afridi’s case: Report

Islamabad – Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assured US lawmakers that he will reconsider the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi jailed Pakistani doctor, who helped the CIA track Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in November 2011.

Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Representative Ed Royce together with Robert Lorsch of the Free Afridi Campaign pressurized Sharif about releasing Afridi and allowing him to live in the United States.

On Oct 22, Nawaz briefed the committee’s members on this and other issues at the Rayburn office building on the Hill.

Sharif more or less repeated the speech he delivered at the US Institute of Peace earlier in the day, making a passionate appeal to the US lawmakers to reengage with Pakistan, Dawn News reports.

According to the report, the lawmakers had brought so much pressure on Sharif that he pledged a legal review of the Afridi case.

The gathering, which included Pakistan’s national security adviser Sartaj Aziz and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, had not been previously announced to the somewhat surprised Pakistani delegation, the report said.

The meeting lasted around 25 minutes in a side-room immediately prior to dinner hosted by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, it added.