Govt policies blamed for Pakistan’s ouster

Opposition demands damage control for the debacle

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday launched into a discussion to ascertain the reasons that led to Pakistan’s ouster from the United Nation’s top human rights body.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already ordered an inquiry into the country’s loss of seat on the Human Rights Council (HRC), but the opposition members in the Senate sought explanations on the floor of the house.



Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senators Saleem Mandviwala and Sassui Palijo moved two identical adjournment motions seeking exclusive discussion over the subject while setting aside the routine agenda of the house. Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani admitted the motions, which would be fixed for discussion during the ongoing session.

“It is a grim reminder of the fast degradation of the state of human rights in the country on the one hand, and of lacklustre and lackadaisical performance of the Foreign Office on the other,” PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar told the house.



“When the first task of the government on assuming office was to abolish the human rights ministry and when the foreign policy mandarins seek to convince the Supreme Court that issuing hunting licences to Arab sheikhs for houbara bustards is the cornerstone of our foreign policy, then we were fated to lose the seat on the council.”



Babar asked if the fiasco was the result of Arab countries voting against Pakistan in response to our policy of not sending troops to Yemen. He asked the FO to come clean and take appropriate measures for damage control.

He said the newly established National Commission on Human Rights had been rendered dysfunctional because it was denied funds and office accommodation, adding that the government had also failed to adopt the anti-torture legislation passed unanimously by the Senate.

Sherry Rehman, PPP vice-president and former ambassador to the United States, said Pakistan’s ouster was a severe blow to the country. “Some countries have questionable record of human rights, but they are [still] members of the council.”



She asked the government about its strategy to deal with the debacle, and demanded that the names of the countries that did not vote for Pakistan be revealed in public.

Senators from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement also censured the government for the diplomatic humiliation.

In response, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said the senators’ impression about the development was incorrect.



He said PM’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had written to the foreign ministers of the HRC’s member countries, adding that meetings were also held with the countries before the council’s election. However, Pakistan would continue to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council, he added.

Meanwhile, PPP Senator Karim Khawaja drew the Senate’s attention towards a recent incident in which the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, attacked female students playing cricket on the campus of the University of Karachi. Condemning the act, he compared the IJT with India’s far-right Shiv Sena party.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2015.