Yasmin Rashid Slams Law Minister for Misleading UN on Human Rights
Incarcerated PTI Punjab President Dr. Yasmin Rashid has strongly criticized Federal Law, Justice, and Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar for allegedly presenting false information at the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council. She has called for the invocation of the amended PECA Act against him for spreading ‘fake news.’
In a letter written from jail on Monday, Dr. Rashid condemned Mr. Tarar’s claims that Pakistan is committed to upholding human rights and that the 26th Amendment was passed to safeguard them. She questioned whether the ongoing repression and persecution of the opposition since 2022 were part of his so-called human rights agenda.
Highlighting nine key points, Dr. Rashid outlined the state’s human rights violations. She lamented that the concept of Chaddar and Char Diwari had been disregarded, with law enforcement raiding homes without warrants and harassing women and children. She accused the authorities of dragging women by their hair, subjecting them to violence, and imprisoning them for protesting.
Despite such oppression, she noted, the PTI secured the highest number of seats in the general elections, yet the government was formed by the PML-N and PPP in collaboration with the Election Commission. She alleged that election tribunals ignored petitions from Form-47 affectees.
Dr. Rashid further accused the current government of ordering the killing of PTI workers in Islamabad on November 26 last year while the law minister falsely claimed that no human rights violations had occurred. She asserted that political workers had been tried and sentenced by military courts, with over 5,000 PTI supporters still behind bars. She also decried the imprisonment of Imran Khan and his wife on what she described as baseless charges.
Speaking of her own ordeal, Dr. Rashid noted that she and her colleagues had been jailed for the past 22 months without conviction or bail. She also condemned the harassment of journalists for speaking the truth, stating that many had been taken off air.
