Dawn...''The family members of noted orthopaedic surgeon Dr Amir Aziz Khan said on Tuesday they had been assured about his return.
"We have been given surety that he would return in a couple of days," his brother Kamran Aziz told Dawn, referring to "authorities concerned" whom he did not want to name. However, he said no forum like the Punjab government, police and court had been approached for the recovery of Dr Amir.
Dr Amir was reportedly arrested by the US agency FBI for his alleged connections with the Taliban.
Mr Kamran strongly denied the charges of providing formulas of biological and chemical weapons by Dr Amir to the Taliban.
"How can an orthopaedic surgeon make such weapons," he said. Admitting his brother's inclinations towards religion, he said everybody had the right to practice his religion and taking somebody on this ground was out of question.
About Dr Amir's visits to Afghanistan, he said he went there several years ago. "It was many years ago when Dr Amir visited Kabul with a group of specialist doctors from all over the world." He said the doctors had gone there to build a hospital.
During a visit to Surgimed and the Ghurki Trust Hospital where Dr Amir has lately been working, it was learnt that he had a tilt towards Jihadis and had been treating the injured Taliban.
Most of his colleagues spoke on condition of anonymity except Dr Nasrullah Chaudhry. "Yes he treated the Taliban," he said. "Is this something beyond the professional duty of a doctor," he asked.
He said the law enforcers accompanied by some foreigners, believed to be the FBI agents, questioned Dr Amir several times during the last some months. "Dr Amir did not hide that he had been treating the Taliban," he said and added he, even, had been admitting it in public.
Other people also expressed the same views. Senior-most among the staff, Dr Shaukat of the Ghurki Hospital, declined comments, though some other people there on condition of anonymity said Dr Amir had treated some injured Taliban there.
Meanwhile, PMA President Dr Yasmin Rashid said there was a resentment in the community about the arrest of Dr Amir. She said the PMA believed that a doctor did not have any boundaries and borders. According to the oath taken by a doctor he or she, even, was bound to look after an enemy soldier in time of a war, she said.
"If Dr Amir went to Afghanistan to treat patients or injured people there he was on a noble mission." Even, Dr Yasmin said, the PMA did make efforts to set up camps in Afghanistan during the war but could not succeed. ''
Update..''She said a meeting of the PMA had been convened on Wednesday (today) to discuss the matter and to evolve future strategy.
Home secretary Ijaz Shah showed his ignorance about the arrest. "We did not arrest him. We have nothing to do with it and we do not know his whereabouts," Mr Shah said in reply to the reporters' questions at the Civil Secretariat. |
