Pakistani FM defends jail term for doctor

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday defended a court decision to imprison a Pakistani doctor who helped the US track down Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden last year, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported. In an interview with NHK, Khar, who is in Tokyo for a three-day visit, Khar stressed the need to respect every country's laws and suggested that it would be unrealistic for any country to expect Pakistan to go against its laws. On Wednesday, a Pakistani court sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi, a surgeon who had worked as a government doctor, to 33 years in prison for treason for helping the US intelligence to locate Bin Laden before he was killed on May 2 last year in a US covert operation in Abbottabad. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the ruling as unjust and said the US will continue to pursue the issue with authorities in Pakistan. US-Pakistan ties were strained after the killing of Bin Laden and a US air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border with Afghanistan last November. Pakistan closed supply routes for US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan in retaliation. Khar said the US should apologize for the 24 deaths if it wants Pakistan to reopen the routes, according to NHK.