Anti-Americanism blinding Pak from acting in its own interest: Editorial

Islamabad, May 25 (ANI): An editorial in a Pakistan daily has said the only message the world will get from the sentencing of Dr Shakil Afridi is that Pakistan is not serious about fighting Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and that the anti-Americanism in the country is so severe, it prevents Pakistan from seeing and doing things that are in its own interest.

Dr Shakil Afridi, who ran a vaccination programme to collect DNA samples of Osama's family at the behest of the U.S., was given a 33 year sentence by a tribal court under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

Osama Bin Laden lived peacefully and safely in Pakistan for many years and yet, the only person to have been punished for that so far is the man who helped locate him, the editorial stated.

The sorry fact is that Dr Afridi's treatment tells Pakistan and the outside world a lot about the country's priorities. Instead of focusing on how Osama was able to freely live in Abbottabad and instead of determining if he was doing so with the support of anyone in the government or the military, the commission, too, has been preoccupied with the sovereignty question, it said.

The editorial further said ordinary Pakistanis have seen, how in recent months, dreaded killers and those who spew sectarian hatred and incite others to murder and cause mayhem have been let off by courts on account of "lack of evidence".

One has yet to see a single one of the criminals of the Karachi killings being convicted and given a lengthy prison sentence. Dr Shakil Afridi, on the other hand, who helped in the capture and removal from Pakistan of Bin Laden, was given a swift 'trial', with no lawyer, and handed down a prison term of over 30 years. (ANI)