ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Monday said that the federal government had failed to respond to six letters written by the Punjab government on the issue of US national Raymond Davis.
He was speaking at the meeting of the Functional Committee on Human Rights.
He deplored that while foreign intelligence agencies operatives were out there killing innocent Pakistanis, nobody knew the whereabouts of the ‘killers’.
He demanded that government must put names of US nationals like Raymond Davis and others accused in the Lahore Shootings on the Exit Control List.
Rashid also demanded the government to unveil the culprits who had tortured a senior journalist Umer Cheema.
Senator Afrasiab Khattak who chaired the meeting said that human rights situation was getting worse in the country. He said people had been forced to leave their homes in restive Mohmand Agency and that they had been left without any government assistance. Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmad from FATA expressed his concerns that those raising voice against deteriorating human rights situation were being threatened.
Representatives of the ministry of human rights told the committee that around 150 Pakistanis had long been missing. However, Senator Surriya differed that the actual number of missing persons was much higher than reported by the ministry officials. Separately, a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights also expressed concern over targeted killing in country.
The lawmakers deplored the finding of the repot that from 2009 to February 2011, the number of people killed in Balochistan were 697, in Sindh 648, in KPK 162 and Punjab 07. The committee criticised the strikes, acts of sabotage aimed at gas lines and Wapda installations and alarming law and order situation in Balochistan.
The committee also deplored the killings of protesters in the Middle East and passed resolution. MNA Riaz Fatyana Chairman Standing Committee on Human Rights chaired the meeting.
