Opp party issues dossier on govt’s alleged human rights violations n Shireen Mazari claims PTI leaders, workers and social media activists arrested, tortured, and ‘subjected to enforced disappearances’ n Fawad says party is reaching out to international bodies and diplomatic corps over ‘rights violations’. ISLAMABAD - The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday warned the ruling alliance that Pakistan risks losing its GSP-Plus status if the incumbent regime continues alleged human rights violations against the party workers and leaders. “The way the government is moving, I don’t see that European Union will extend Pakistan’s GSP-Plus status (beyond December 2023,” said senior PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari while unveiling the party’s “dossier on violations of human rights by the government” at a news conference here.
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Accompanied by other party leader Fawad Chaudhry, former human rights minister Dr Mazari underlined that Pakistan would start negotiations with the EU for an extension on the Generalized System of Preferences-Plus (GSP-Plus) by the end of April this year. She further said that Pakistan’s agreement with the EU binds the former to implement seven conventions on human rights. Accusing the incumbent federal and provincial governments for their involvement in human rights, she said that PTI leaders, workers, and social media activists were arrested, tortured, and subjected to enforced disappearances by people in civvies since the party lost power in April last year.
The GSP-Plus facility has been available to Pakistan since January 2014, which will end in December 2023. It is likely that Pakistan will seek another extension from the EU before expiry of the special status. Former information minister Fawad speaking on the occasion said that PTI activists Shahid Hussain and Azhar Mashwani had been missing since March 23. However, Hussain has been released because he is a British national, he added. The PTI leader said that the government registered 15 cases against party chief Imran Khan in a single day. As many as 143 cases have been registered against Khan and other party leaders, he also said.
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Chaudhry claimed that as many as 1060 PTI workers and social media activists were under arrest till March 21 while 1100 more have been detained after that date. “We are reaching out to international bodies, and diplomatic corps over this rights violation.”He said that the overseas Pakistanis have started a campaign against” cabinet of Punjab led by caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi to get their visas cancelled and get them declared persona non grata to block their entry into western countries. He further said that the party was going to file cases against police chiefs of Islamabad and Punjab besides some other officers and caretaker members of the Punjab cabinet internationally. The purpose is to get them declared persona non grata internationally like the US had declared Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Gujrat riots. “The countries cannot be run in this way and states cannot exist on the basis of suppression and cruelty.” He warned that the actions of the incumbent regime may push Pakistan again into the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATA), “They (rulers) will bring more misery for Pakistan,” he said, adding that they even didn’t know about the consequences of their actions. He again cautioned that Pakistan may face sanctions due to human rights violations allegedly being committed by the government.
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The dossier says that since April 2022 when the PTI government was toppled, the political party and its supporters have been targeted by a systematic, sustained and state-sponsored campaign of human rights violations. This includes illegal arrests, detention, custodial torture and victimization of political workers; suppression of media reporting and attacks on freedom of expression; and even violation of the dignity and privacy of political opponents