PM refutes rights violation charge
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday rejected charges of human rights violations by security forces made in a US State Department report as part of propaganda to malign the country’s institutions.
He made the statement in the National Assembly after Leader of Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan drew the government’s attention to what he called a “most disquieting” story in newspapers about a matter of which, he said, notice had been taken by the US State Department and Congress but not by the Pakistani government.
According to the State Department report sent to Congress, thousands of political separatists and Taliban insurgents have disappeared into the hands of Pakistan’s police and security forces, and some may have been tortured or killed.
The prime minister said several foreign delegations had also raised similar concerns in their meetings with him, but the security forces had often complained of ineffective laws facilitating the release of suspected terrorists by courts on bail despite the killings of “thousands of our jawans” and called for more effective laws showing “zero tolerance” to terrorism.
“If they are engaged in human rights violations, then why are they asking us to make more effective laws?” Mr Gilani asked and said: “There is no question of human rights violations (by them).”
“They want to malign our institutions,” he said about the latest report and similar charges made on other occasions.
Chaudhry Nisar said persons charged with militancy and terrorism must be brought to justice but “requirements of justice must be fulfilled” and that the approach of the present elected government should be different from that of the previous Musharraf regime.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/1/2011
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