Zardari calls for adoption of law against torture

ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has called for tolerance, respect for human rights, diversity and pluralism.

In a message from Dubai on the Universal Human Rights Day being observed on Dec 10 worldwide, he said: “On this occasion, the party demands that reports on the implementation of the international human rights conventions pertaining to ending torture and ensuring civil and political rights of citizens which were signed during the previous PPP government should be submitted regularly and also made public. I also call for the adoption of the Bill Against Torture that has already been passed unanimously by the Senate early this year,” he said in the statement issued by the party’s media office on Wednesday.

Also read: Zardari calls for preventing misuse of ‘religion-based’ laws

“We also express dismay over how some laws have been misused against women and minorities in the name of religion and urge every man and woman of conscience to raise voice against it. We salute those who have suffered in the course of struggle for human rights and demand that special protection be given to the human rights defenders who selflessly serve the cause of human rights.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2015