Author: Staff Report
Publication: Daily Times
Date: June 24, 2005
URL: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-6-2005_pg7_32
The Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians
(PPPP) has submitted an adjournment motion seeking a debate on the issue
of alleged oppression of Hindu community by the relatives of Sindh Chief
Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim in Khait Lari, Tharparker.
It was a serious mater and needed
to be discussed in the National Assembly because it could cause serious
problems for Pakistan's image internationally, states the motion signed
by eight PPPP MNAs.
Pakistan did not have good record
of human rights and this case cause a serious damage to the already distorted
image of Pakistan, said Sherry Rehman. "It is very unfortunate that the
Sindh chief minister's relatives are committing crimes against the minority
community with impunity at a time when President General Pervez Musharraf
and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were trying to promote a soft image of
Pakistan. We want to discuss this matter in house to expose the government's
double standards," she added.
The motion further states that according
to reports published in the press, a fact finding mission of the Pakistan
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) had claimed that a sizable Hindu
community was being oppressed in Khait Lari, home town of Sindh chief minister.
According to the HRCP fact-finding
mission led by Jam Saqi, human rights activist and social worker, a Hindu
family complained of victimisation by Rahim's close relatives.
Hindu woman Mai Dhanno,60, a widow
and a mother of four, submitted before the HRCP team that her son had been
kidnapped by the Sindh CM's relatives who she alleged had tried to rape
the wife of her kidnapped son.
After he returned to Lahore, Jam
Saqi and his wife were arrested allegedly on the orders of Rahim for filing
a report exposing the reign of terror unleashed by his relatives in the
interior of Sindh.
Sherry Rehman, Raja Pervez Ashraf,
Nawab Yousaf Ahmed Talpur, Syed Naveed Qamar, Ramesh Lal, Nayyar Bukhari,
Manzoor Wasan, and Khurshid Ahmed Shah had signed the adjournment motion.
