Lawyer says officials refused to renew ID cards for wife and children of Shakil Afridi, who helped US track and kill al-Qaida chief

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Pakistan has refused to grant identity cards to the family of Shakil Afridi, the jailed doctor who helped the US hunt Osama bin Laden, his lawyer has said, in effect denying them passports and voting rights.

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Afridi has been in prison for more than five years after his fake vaccination programme helped the CIA track and kill the al-Qaida leader.

His lawyer, Qamar Nadim, said officials were refusing to renew Afridi’s wife’s ID card, which expired in December, because her husband’s card had lapsed in 2014. He has also been denied a new card.

Officials were similarly refusing to grant new cards to his two children, said Nadim, who has been denied access to his client for more than two years.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Shakil Afridi was jailed for 33 years in 2012. Photograph: AP

ID cards are a key proof of citizenship in Pakistan. Without one, Pakistanis cannot get passports or vote, register for a phone number or get utilities installed, buy property or enrol children in school, and could face delays at security checkpoints, among other things.

“Why are they punishing the entire family? It’s not justice, it’s cruelty,” Nadim said. He said he would challenge the decision in a court in the north-western city of Peshawar this week.

Officials from the interior ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The refusal to grant ID cards means Afridi’s son and daughter face problems getting admission to college, the doctor’s brother, Jamil, said. “So the family can’t go abroad and the children are facing difficulties in continuing their education.”

Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May 2012 after he was convicted of ties to militants, a charge he has always denied. Some American politicians said the case was revenge for his help in the search for Bin Laden.

Last year a US threat to cut aid to Pakistan led a tribunal to cut 10 years off his sentence – but since then US pressure for his release has tapered off.

Donald Trump vowed during his election campaign last May that he would order Pakistan to free Afridi.

“I’m sure they would let them [him] out. Because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan,” Trump told Fox News at the time, adding that Pakistan “takes advantage like everybody else”.

The comments sparked a blistering rebuttal from Pakistan, whose interior minister branded Trump “ignorant” and stated the “government of Pakistan and not Donald Trump” would decide Afridi’s fate.