Zardari for national charter of human rights | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Zardari for national charter of human rights

Pakistan Press Foundation

ISLAMABAD –  Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Friday called for adoption of a national charter of human rights along the lines of the Charter of Democracy (CoD).

In a message on the international human rights day to be observed today (Saturday), he said: “human rights are indivisible, universal and its frontiers constantly expanding, and it requires that political parties agree on some minimum standards that must be achieved within a specified time frame.”

“Peace and democracy will elude us as long as there are no human rights because they all are intertwined,” Zardari said.

“We also need an environment of freedom and liberalism to promote these values,” the former president said in his message.

Apart from guaranteeing the most fundamental right to life, liberty and security, the minimum agreed charter should also guarantee the four basic freedoms that is freedom of expression, freedom of information, right to assembly and the right to association, he said.

Zardari said it was sad though that on the eve of this year’s human rights day the right to information had been denied by the absence of the Right to Information legislation at the federal level.

The right to life is threatened by enforced disappearances and extra judicial killings, he said.

The former president said the previous Pakistan People’s Party government had signed the international human rights conventions on ending torture and ensuring civil and political rights of the citizens, and demanded that implementation reports of these conventions be made public.

He said that sometime back the Senate unanimously passed the bill against torture which was now before the National Assembly.

“I wish to compliment the Senate, I also urge the Senate to pass the bill expeditiously,” Zardari added.

On this day, he said: “let us also pay homage to those who have suffered in the course of struggle for human rights. We salute the human rights defenders and demand that special protection be given to them.”

Meanwhile, on Friday, the PPP said it held a meeting of the implementation committee formed by the PPP Chief, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on party’s four demands.

“This meeting will take place at the PPP Media Office Islamabad on December 13, presided over by former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani,” said a party statement.

The implementation committee will deliberate on progress on four demands to the government by Bilawal and will chalk out the future strategy. Other members of the committee include Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Farhatullah Babar, Senator Fateh Muhammad Hasni and Qamar Zaman Kaira.

Bilawal had asked the government to accept his four demands that include — immediate appointment of a permanent foreign minister, implementation of a resolution passed by an All Parties Conference on the CPEC, passage of the draft Panama bill, and reconstitution of the parliamentary committee on national security by December 27.

The Nation

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