Doctor in trouble over ruse used to help find Bin Laden

Islamabad: A phoney vaccination campaign orchestrated by the CIA to help find and kill Osama Bin Laden is undercutting Western-backed immunisation drives against polio and other diseases, and now has the Pakistani doctor involved in the programme possibly facing treason charges.

A Pakistani government commission investigating the US raid that killed Bin Laden in May recommended last week that treason charges be filed against Dr Shakeel Afridi, who helped carry out the fake vaccination effort designed to obtain DNA evidence from the Al Qaida leader's sprawling compound in Abbottabad.

If Afridi is charged and convicted, he could face the death penalty.

US officials have been seeking the doctor's release since his arrest in May by Pakistani intelligence agents and have defended the ruse, arguing that extraordinary measures were needed to track down the world's most wanted terrorist.

The ruse not only compounded Pakistan's anger toward the US over the raid but also hampered efforts by Pakistani and Western aid organisations involved in real vaccination campaigns, a worrying development in a country where poor sanitation and lack of adequate health care aggravate the spread of disease.

Fallout from the phoney vaccination drive has also severely hampered the work of several Western aid organisations in Pakistan, which say they have been harassed by Pakistani intelligence agents suspicious of the groups' affiliations.

"To live and work and get permission to do anything has become more difficult," said Pascal Cuttat, the departing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Pakistan, during a news conference in Geneva in July. "Everyone is struggling with the bureaucracy."