ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday demanded President Arif Alvi to play his role and stress upon the state institutions to take cognizance of the grave transgressions and remedy them urgently to pave the way for continuity of democracy, upholding of the Constitution and ensuring respect for human rights as enshrined in the constitution.
In a letter to the President, PTI secretary general Omar Ayub highlighted the enforced disappearances, forced conversions, changing political loyalties, absence of level playing field, crackdown on media and social media activists, mistreatment of women through prolonged incarceration and non-presentation of challans.
He said that "we are writing to respectfully bring to your attention a few matters of urgent public importance with reference to the enforcement of fundamental rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II of the Constitution namely the matter of enforced disappearances for purposes of changing political loyalties and the way this has taken an uglier turn in recent months, and the increasing non-existence of a "level playing field" in the holding of free, fair, inclusive, and timely general elections in Pakistan in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, crackdown on media and social media activists and mistreatment of women by keeping them in prison without presentation of challans.”
“You would surely be aware that the matter of enforced disappearances is already a decades-long issue that has been haunting Pakistan locally and has brought a bad name to our country internationally,” he added.
Omar said that in the past, whenever the matter was raised with the concerned quarters, this abhorrent practice has been defended as a response to serious threats to Pakistan's integrity and national security.
“As of late, however, and possibly for the first time in Pakistan's history, enforced disappearances have repeatedly gotten employed as a political tool to extort public statements from leaders and workers alike and also to coerce and silence outspoken journalists, media personalities and social media activists,” the letter reads.
The letter said that “equally so, we regret to observe that, even though elections by adult franchise represent the backbone of every democratic system, and in our case lie at the heart of the Constitution, our persistent calls for adherence to Constitutionally prescribed time limits have gone unheeded despite pronouncements made by the Supreme Court itself.”
Omar contended that "over and above that, it is now being widely perceived that selective and opaque administration of justice, favoring (or dis-favoring) one over others, is shredding to pieces the principles of fair trial and due process as enunciated by the Constitution. At the same time, allowing freedom of assembly to a range of political parties, to the exclusion of a few targeted ones, stripping one large political party of the vital facility of an electoral symbol to the exclusion of all others, and holding a selected set of political leaders in detention while others roam scot-free, has forced at least three large political parties to point to the utter lack of a "level playing field" leading to the upcoming much-awaited general elections.
“We are constrained to observe that it is now being felt that the foregoing measures are tantamount to disenfranchising a massive part of Pakistan's voting population,” he added.
“Therefore, we are bringing the above to your notice with the request that you may kindly," he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
Comments
Comments are closed.