Enforcing four points: PPP’s implementation panel to meet on 13th

Asif Ali Zardari appeals for national charter of human rights

ISLAMABAD: An implementation committee, formed by the Pakistan Peoples Party, to press the government into enforcing the opposition party’s four-point agenda, will meet on December 13 before formally entering into negotiations with the government.

PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had set up the panel of veteran politicians to engage with the government on the isse.

On Thursday, the PPP announced the formation of its implementation committee to engage with the government. It has already warned that it would launch a protest campaign if its demands are not met by December 27.

Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is heading the panel with Senators Sherry Rehman, Farhatullah Babar, Fateh Muhammad Hasni and Qamar Zaman Kaira, as its members.



The party’s media cell stated that the committee would deliberate upon the progress on the party’s demands, as well as chalk out a strategy in the light of this meeting.

Calling the Panama case a litmus test, Bilawal said that a nationwide resolve was needed to root out corruption.

In a statement on the International Anti-Corruption Day, he said that the PPP believed in eliminating corruption through democratic accountability.

“Like all other ills faced by our society, corruption is also promoted and patronised by dictatorial regimes. Prevalence of the ‘sacred cow syndrome’ and the use of accountability tools just for political victimisation remains the biggest hurdle against all anti-corruption initiatives,” he said.

Human rights charter

The poor state of human rights in the country necessitated the adoption of a national charter of human rights, said former president Asif Ali Zardari.

In a message on the International Human Rights Day, which would be observed on Saturday (today), he said that human rights required political parties to agree on some minimum standards to be achieved within a specified timeframe.

“Peace and democracy will elude us as long as there are no human rights … they all are intertwined,” PPP’s media office quoted Zardari as saying.

Apart from guaranteeing the fundamental right to life, liberty and security, he said that the charter should also guarantee freedom of expression, freedom of information, right to assembly and the right to association.

“It is a sad thought on the eve of this year’s human rights day that the … right to life is threatened by enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings,” he said.

Zardari recalled that sometime ago, the Senate had unanimously passed a bill against torture, which was now pending before the National Assembly.



“I urge the Senate to pass the bill expeditiously”.

On the same occasion, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari pledged that the PPP would continue to uphold human rights and offer stiff resistance against violations anywhere.

In his message, the PPP chairman said: “Imprisonments, solitary confinements, lashes and even the gallows cannot deter the PPP leadership and workers in their struggle for basic human rights, democracy and equal opportunities for all,” he added.

Bilawal claimed there were no political prisoners when the previous PPP government was in power, but the rule of Nawaz Sharif had worsened human rights violations, especially against weak segments such as women and minorities.

“The PPP will hold (the Nawaz government) accountable before the elected houses of the people of Pakistan,” stated.

Condemning the atrocities perpetrated by Indian occupation forces against the people of Held Kashmir, the PPP chairman urged the United Nations to stop India from indulging in such horrible violations of fundamental human rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2016.