WASHINGTON: The lawyers of Dr. Afia Siddiqui Elaine Sharpe and Charles Swift will be travelling to Pakistan and Afghanistan, respectively, within next few weeks, to gather evidence to fight the case of Dr. Afia Siddiqui in a US federal court.

Diplomatic sources told The News here on Friday that Ms Elaine Sharpe and Mr. Charles Swift met with Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani and discussed various issues relating to the defence of Dr. Afia Siddiqui. Ambassador Hussain Haqqani assured the lawyers that Pakistan Government will fully cooperate with lawyers to end the ordeal of Dr. Afia siddiqui.

It may be pointed out here that Pakistan Government has paid 1.5 million US dollars to three lawyers-Elaine Sharpe, Linda Morano and Charles Swift to represent Dr. Afia Siddiqui's case in a federal court. Dr. Afia's arrest was announced by the US forces in Afghanistan last year after her mysterious disappearance in 2003 from Karachi.

According to the sources attorney Elaine Sharpe's visit to Pakistan and Charles Swift travel to Afghanistan will be focusing on finding what happened to Dr. Afia during the years of disappearance and who orchestrated it. link